Dirty Little Secrets
by At Least I Didn't Fake It
Summary: When Rogue starts dreaming once more of Mystique's past, she discovers some startling secrets. To make matters worse, a certain Cajun she hasn't seen in years shows up at the mansion, enrolling as a new student, and trying to extract his secret revenge. Follow the X-men as they discover the secrets of one of their own - the good, the bad and the ugly truths about the Rogue. *AU Evo
1. Chapter 1

**Hi guys! This is my first story on , so sorry if it's not that good. I would love some constructive criticism, though! This story is set in Evolution, but it's pretty AU. Rogue wasn't adopted by Mystique, she didn't spend her whole childhood in Mississippi, and Gambit isn't necessarily part of the Acolytes. Also, this is set just after the new recruits join. Ages are a little different as well. Please let me know your honest opinion! Love to all of y'all!**

* * *

 _"No!" Mystique wailed as she watched the form of her son, her beautiful baby boy, slip quite literally through her fingers and fall into the water below. She collapsed on the bridge, her knees no longer able to support her as she mourned the loss of yet another one of her children. She glared up at the cloaked man before her, the pain in her heart almost unbearable._

 _"Why?" She whimpered tearfully, defeated. "Why did you have to take away his normalcy?" She spat, her anger mounting to a crescendo. The figure said nothing._

 _"Was this because you were jealous? Jealous that I had moved on? I gave you two children, and let's not forget that they don't even know who I am, and all that you can do is destroy my son's life? He is going to be treated like a monster! He's blue, and furry, and missing fingers! And I love him, so, so much, but nobody else is going to treat him normally! Is this how you will continue to hurt me and_ my _children?"_

 _Magneto did not even twitch._

 _"My children -" Mystique gasped. She scrambled to her feet, her instincts as a mother forcing her to move forward, forcing her to make sure that all her babies were safe. "Anna - what have you done with Anna?" Did you experiment on her too?"_

 _Finally, Magneto answered her. "Yes."_

 _Mystique seemed not to know how to react to this piece of information. She was relieved that her youngest child was in the picture, but who could tell how the experiments could have affected her. "Well? How is she?"_

 _"She did not survive the tests."_

 _And with that, Mystique's world crumbled. She let out a mighty wail and followed her son into the water, transforming into a small shark in order to better smell her baby boy. She could not think of her daughter. All thought's of her baby girl were pushed from her mind as her instincts kicked in and she located the last surviving of her children._

"Rogue! Rogue! Wake up!"

She came to, flailing and fumbling until finally she oriented herself. She felt a strange sense of deja vu, noticing all the concerned faces around her bed. The New Recruits were at the doorway, having never seen one of Rogue's episodes, while Beast was watching over them. Her closer friends were by her side; Kitty, who had phased half through the floor in fear, Wolverine, who had his claws out in case of a threat, Evan, who was pacing around, not knowing what to do, Jean, who had said her name, Scott, who was standing at her shoulder, shaking her, the Professor, his hands at his head in a futile attempt to get into her head, Storm, who had accidentally created a strong wind in her concern, Kurt...

"Argh!" She screamed again, looking at Kurt. Immediately, every one of the older X-men looked between the two, remembering what happened the last time Rogue was plagued by Mystique's memories.

"Ja, vhat happened?" Kurt asked urgently, moving closer to the Southerner's side. Rogue shook her head silently.

"Ah - Ah can't tell yah. It would break your heart, Kurt. Trust meh." Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Beast herd the New Recruits back to their own rooms. She was grateful. It meant there would be less of an audience.

"But Rogue, I need to know! Vhy don't you understand, zhis is my family vhe are discussing, is it not?" Kurt was positive that it was Mystique's memories again.

 _Rogue, do you need me, Wolverine or Storm anymore? I have a feeling that you might be more comfortable with your friends, and not adults._

Rogue flinched unconsciously at the unfamiliar voice. Shaking her head, she said aloud, "Yeah, Prof, Ah'm fahne now." The Professor nodded, and motioned for the other two to leave. They did, with a parting stroke of Rogue's hair from Storm and a gruff 'goodnight' from Wolverine. Now the friends assembled, Rogue sitting on her bed, still covered head to toe in clothing to prevent any unfortunate accidents. Kitty phased her own bed closer to Rogue's and got in. Jean and Scott joined Kitty, the two of them sitting on the edge of her bed. Spyke sat on the floor, leaning against the wall, and Kurt sat on the edge of Rogue's bed, not wanting to miss a single word.

"Vell?" Kurt said, unable to bear the suspension. "Vhat do you know?"

"Ah already told yah, Kurt, Ah don't think yah wanna know!"

"Vell, zhat's for me to decide, isn't it?" Kurt shot back, glaring at the girl. Jean decided to speak up.

"Rogue, we all know that you're just trying to be a good friend, but Kurt does deserve to know, especially if it has to do with Mystique."

"Jean's right," Scott said predictably, "You need to tell us, Rogue." He had his warning leader-voice on. Rogue stared at the group, all of her so-called friends were pressuring her to do something she knew Kurt would be better off without.

"Fahne. Suit yourselves," she drawled bitterly. She turned to Kurt. "I found some o' the rest of yah're family."

Kurt just about stopped breathing.

"You mean, like, his dad?" Kitty spoke up. Rogue shook her head.

"Nah, Kit, Ah dunno who he is. But Ah know about his sisters and brothers now."

"Mein...?" Kurt whispered weakly, feeling lightheaded. Rogue nodded, a far off look in her eyes.

"Eldest one o' Mystique's kids is Graydon Creed.'Bout thirty, now. He's a mutant hatin' douche, though, don't look for him. He'd probably rip yah to shreds. "

Kurt blanched at this information. Jean scowled at Rogue's lack of tact. Kurt was projecting his pain pretty loudly, and Jean felt a bit protective of the younger boy.

Rogue continued, as if Kurt hadn't reacted at all. "He's yah're half brother. Yah've got another one o' those, a half sister, and a full sister. Actually, yah've met the other half siblings."

"I have?" Kurt's voice was filled with emotion and wonder. Rogue nodded sagely.

"Uh-huh. Wanda and Pietro. Magneto's brats. They're about a year elder to yah."

"Hold up," Evan said disbelievingly, "That can't be possible! Pietro's my age. And their mom was human!"

Rogue shook her head. "Naw, sugar, he's half past seventeen now. Him an' Wanda have been held back 'cause of their disjointed education. And come on, yah really think someone as egotistical as Magneto would evah sleep with a mortal?" Nobody had a response to that. It _did_ seem out of character for the man who viewed humans as insects to have children with one.

"Vanda and Pietro..." Kurt repeated dizzily. Scott gave him a concerned look.

"Come on, Kurt. You good?" Cyclops inwardly winced at the question. The blue boy had just found out that their sworn enemies were his own siblings. Of course he wasn't 'good.'

Kurt blinked. "Ja." He turned back to Rogue. "You said sisters."

Rogue furrowed her brow. "Huh?"

"Earlier. You said sisters. I have another _schwester_." All eyes were back on Rogue, who had paled dramatically.

"C'mon, Kurt. Yah've had enough shocks for a nigh'." Rogue tried to evade the topic. She snuggled back in the bed, trying to signify that the conversation was over.

"No." Kurt's voice came out in a deadly whisper as he used his unique hand to grab Rogue's arm tightly. "You vill tell me, Rogue."

"Kurt, Ah don' think -"

"Oh, for God's sake Rogue, must we do this again?!" Scott burst out angrily. He hated to see any member of his team in as much emotional pain as Kurt was in right now. Rogue's head snapped to him.

"Alright, fahne." She spat out angrily. She yanked her arm away from Kurt's strong grasp, wincing as she felt her sensitive skin start to bruise. One of the lesser known downsides to never touching anything was that her skin was soft and ultra sensitive and the slightest of pushes could turn her black and blue. "Fahne." She repeated again, softly. The whole group waited with bated breath. Rogue took a deep breath. When she spoke again, it was with a soft, gentle tone, one normally used to calm down an upset mind.

"Kurt, sugar, yah had a younger sister, a year younger. She was biologically yah're full sister, though Ah still can't see who yah're dad is. See, Mystique cared about yah both very much. She trusted someone to take care of yah both. But that someone betrayed her trust and started to experiment on the two of yah. You survahved with the physical mutation of yahr's. But yah're sister passed on."

"Vhat vas her name?"

Rogue winced. Kurt's voice was calm. Too calm. "Anna. yah're sister was called Anna."

Kurt let out a choked sob and turned into Jean's shoulder to cry. The air of the room had been somber yet intrigued. Now, it was devastated and distressed. Rogue closed her eyes sadly and hung her head in respect for little Anna. She felt horrible for having to reveal something so terrible to someone she considered a good friend.

Some things were better left unsaid.

* * *

 **Wow that was longer than I thought. Well, I would love to receive some honest feedback! Thanks so much!**


	2. Chapter 2

It had been a week since Rogue had revealed to Kurt the tragedy of his younger sister, and the air around the elder X-men had not been the same since. Kurt had been quieter lately, his jokes and pranks noticeably missing. Scott and Jean had been protective of him, and Kitty and Evan were spending every waking second with him, trying to distract him. Rogue, on the other hand, was avoiding him completely. She figured that seeing her would only remind the blue boy about the family he was missing. By this point, word had gotten out in the mansion about Kurt's sister. The adults were very supportive, and the New Recruits had collectively decided to treat him normally.

"Uh, Rogue?"

Rogue turned around in surprise to see Jamie Madrox, the youngest child living in the mansion, looking up at her with an apprehensive yet pleading gaze.

"What can Ah do for yah, sugar?" Rogue decided to smile at the young boy, and he seemed to visibly relax.

"I was wondering if you could help me with my homework?" Jamie said unsurely, looking more embarrassed by the second. Rogue froze. Someone was willingly putting themselves in the vicinity of her? Knowing fully well that she was a life sucking vampire, that she could kill someone, or at the very least put them into a coma...

"Sorry, Jamie, but Ah don' think tha'd be a good idea," she said hesitantly, and hastened to explain when she saw the crestfallen look on the boy's face, "It's not that Ah don' wanna help yah out, it's that Ah'm afraid that Ah'll hurt yah."

Jamie's face brightened. "Oh, that's not a problem!" He chirped cheerfully. "I've got a sweater that I'll wear. And you've got gloves and a long shirt on, so I don't think it would be much of a problem!"

 _See,_ ma copine _, people'll still want to get to know you. And you used to say that there isn't any good old hospitality up north._

Rogue stiffened as a flood of emotions spilled through her. She hadn't heard that particular voice in a long time. Pushing it to the back of her mind, she absently addressed Jamie again. "Yeah, okay, sugar, Ah'll help yah. What grade are yah in again?"

"Seventh," Jamie replied with a grateful smile. "Thanks, Rogue! I owe you!" And he scampered off, presumably to collect his textbooks.

Rogue, however, wasn't paying attention. She sunk down into her chair and placed her head in her hands. That voice was so unexpected. For four years, she had worked diligently to keep that particular persona in the back of her mind. She doubted even the Professor knew of its existence. She felt tears start to pool in her eyes, and she shut them tightly to keep them from falling.

That voice was indicative of the biggest secret Rogue had - the secret of her past.

* * *

 _It be un heure après midi, non?_ Remy thought distractedly as he paced just outside the gate to the mansion of some Charles Xavier. _Dat be de time dat le professeur said, righ'? Remy don' wanna be disrespectin' nobody. 'N de prof is probably busy. Mebbe Remy shoul' come back later, non?_

The speaker on the outside of the gate crackled to life, making Remy lift his head up sharply in anticipation.

"Come in, Mr. LeBeau. We have been waiting." A calm voice came over the line, and Remy had no doubt in his mind that this was the Professor.

 _Merde,_ he thought, _Was I tinking too loud pour le professeur?_

"You were projecting, yes. That seems to be the only way a telepath can hear you, however. You have extremely good mental shields in place, I must admit." Professor X didn't _sound_ angry. Remy took a deep breath and walked inside the gate. Every second he spent walking towards the gigantic mansion was another second for his nervousness to multiply. Finally, he reached the front. With a deep breath, the seventeen year old boy knocked exactly six times on the door - force of habit for the Thieves code, he supposed. The door slowly opened and he was greeted by an African woman with striking blue eyes and long white hair. Remy immediately started to smirk, keeping his cool and staying calm, not showing any outward sign of his nervousness.

"You must be Remy. My name is Ororo Munroe, but I will also answer to Storm. It's a pleasure to meet you." The woman smiled softly, not seeming to sense Remy's turmoil. "The professor is expecting you. Allow me to show you to his office."

"Merci, Remy 'preciates i'. So where are de rest of _les étudiants_? Studen's," he clarified at her nonplussed look. Storm's brow cleared.

"Ah, yes, the students. They are still in school right now. They attend Bayville High, which is where you shall be going as well. You are a junior, yes?"

Remy hesitated. "Oui," he agreed, "But dis Cajun tinks dat it'd be _très gênant_ to start school in de middle o' de yea'." Storm smiled.

"Oh, no, not at all. We get new students all the time. You'd be surprised at how easygoing the school will be about another transfer in the middle of the year."

"I see." They came to a stop outside a door, which Remy presumed to be the professor's. Storm knocked on the door.

"Come in."

Storm opened the door and Remy walked in. His eyes fell on the bald man in the wheelchair.

"Hello, Mr. LeBeau. My name is Professor Charles Xavier. It's a pleasure to meet you. May I ask what brings you here?"

Remy hesitated. "Well, _Professeur_ , 't all starte' _quand_ Remy was a youn' boy, an' he an' his bes' frien's were all mutan's too."

* * *

Rogue left her last class of the day with a disgruntled look on her face. _Ah mean, who though' havin' math a' the end o' the day was a good idea?_

She sat at the foot of her favorite tree, opening her bag to get out a book to read. Scott was so head over heels for Jeanie that he refused to take the rest of them home until Miss Perfect was done with soccer practice. Rogue rolled her eyes. She had no idea where that ridiculous rumor of her having a crush on Scott Summers (of all people!) came from; while the young man was extremely handsome, he was also extremely stuck up in Rogue's opinion. While he did care about the members of the team, he also chose favorites, which annoyed the Southern girl to no end. Most of the original X-men were favorites of Scott, as well as little Jamie Madrox. But for some reason, Rogue was on the same level as the New Recruits in Cyke's mind - a condescending idea that they were all "good kids," but also rather annoying and immature. She breathed out harshly, hating the underestimation she had to deal with.

 _Don' be a little whiner, hun. Yah know yah could have it a lot worse,_ she reminded herself.

She practically jumped out of her skin when she heard a loud horn. "C'mon, Rogue!" Jean's annoyed voice came from Scott's convertible, "We can't wait forever!"

Rogue ran to the car and got in the back, next to Kitty. Kurt was on the younger girl's other side, while Jean was in the front with Scott. Evan was skating home, and the New Recruits usually walked the ten blocks. Logan said it was a good warm up before the Danger Room exercises. "Sorry, Ah though' yah had soccer today, Jean," she apologized, though inwardly annoyed that nobody had told her they were leaving early, "But why? Ah though' there was some big game this weekend or somthin'."

"There is," Scott answered her, "But the professor wants us home early today. He says there's someone he wants us to meet."

"Is it, like, another student?" Kitty asked excitedly. "Ooh, like, a girl, or a boy? What do you think, Kurt?"

The blue boy only shrugged. "I don't know, Kitty. It vould seem zhat zhe professor vould be able to answer your questions."

Rogue rolled her eyes. "Oh, c'mon Kit, what's it matter? S'not lahke anothe' new student'll change the whole mansion somehow. In fact, Ah bet it's a little girl, timid an' shy. Probably with some subtle powers easy to hahde, lahke Jeanie's ovah here."

The rest of the car ride was spent with the five of them speculating about the kind of person the new kid would be.

When Scott pulled in at the mansion, Rogue jumped out and walked in through the back. She made her way upstairs and started on her homework.

She had been working diligently for about an hour when she heard the professor's voice in her head, telling her to come down and meet the new kid. She shrugged and complied, more than happy to close her Latin textbook. _Ah don' see why the prof's so adamant, though. S'not lahke meetin' the new kid a bit late's gonna affect me in any way._

* * *

Remy swallowed. He had sunglasses on, to cover his eyes, and was leaning casually against a pillar. The professor had told him to wait there, and that he would send in the students to meet him soon. It had been five minutes.

Just then, the door opened, and a tall boy with red shades came in, closely followed by a gorgeous redhead with pale green eyes. Behind them was a crowd of teenagers, all peering anxiously to catch a glimpse of the new kid.

"Hi, I'm Scott Summers," Shades said, reaching out to shake Remy's hand, "But you can call me Cyclops."

"Nice t' meetcha, Cyclops. I go by Gambit, but m'name 's Remy LeBeau."

"I'm Jean. Jean Grey." The redhead held out her hand, much like Scott before. Remy gave her a charming grin and lifted her hand to his lips, kissing it. Jean turned bright red, and out of the corner of his eye, Remy saw Cyclops stiffen angrily. " _Bonjour, p'tite_."

"H-hi."

The room filled slowly, Remy's sneaky instincts filing away every person for future reference. When he had finally met the youngest of the lot ("Jamie! And I can multiply myself!"), he turned to the young girl named Rahne.

"So, chérie, s'tha' all?" Rahne blushed a little bit, but regained her wits enough to answer.

"No," she said in her lilting Scottish accent, "I don't see Rogue anywhere."

"Rogue?" Gambit repeated curiously, "Who's dat?"

Most of them exchanged knowing glances, intriguing Gambit all the more. Little Jamie piped up, however. "Rogue doesn't have a name. I mean, obviously she does, but she's never told any of us what it is. She can absorb-"

"Ah can explain for mahself, Jamie, but thanks, sugar," came a voice from the doorway. Gambit smirked.

"Well, dere's an accent I can place. Y'from Mississippi, ain'tcha?" He asked, without looking at the owner of the gorgeous Southern tang.

"Ah see yah know yah're surrounding states, yah Swamp Rat."

"Ooh, chérie, dat's harsh. But den again, what can dis poor old Cajun 'xpect from a little River Rat?" He finally turned around, and his breath caught in his throat. She seemed to have the same reaction. Gambit staggered back, straight into the teleporting blue boy who made a small noise of protest. Scott turned to the Southern girl.

"What's going on? Why is he acting like he knows you? Does he know you? How?"

But 'Rogue' seemed not to hear a word that Cyclops said. Instead, she stared at the Cajun with a shocked, despairing gaze. Remy felt the strongest of emotions stir within him. Nostalgia, betrayal, love, hate, fury, heartbreak...

" _Les yeux..._ " Gambit whispered. He took one step towards her, looking into those green, green eyes.

Jean frowned. She was the only one in the mansion that took French, so she was the only one that understood that Gambit was familiar with Rogue's eyes. She opened her mouth to inform Gambit he needed to speak in English for Rogue to understand, but was interrupted by the goth herself.

" _C'est pas vrai,_ " She murmured hysterically, " _Je travaillais pour quatre ans, mais maintenant tu es ici._ " She spoke so fast that Jean, who was averaging a B in French (languages weren't her strong subject) couldn't understand her. In English, she suddenly ordered, "Take off the glasses."

Remy complied, much to the surprise of the rest of the students as well as the adults. They all gasped in surprise at his red on black eyes. All except for Rogue, who stumbled backwards, shaking her head madly.

" _Nous avons pensé que tu es mort._ " Remy breathed, lying through his teeth. " _Après notre amie est mort..._ "

" _Elle est mort?!_ " Rogue gasped, guilt shaking her.

" _Non, mais elle est dans le coma._ " Remy whispered. Rogue's eyes burned with tears, but she pushed them back.

"What the hell?" Bobby spoke for all of them, ignoring the warning look Jean sent him for his language.

"Nothin', sugar," Rogue whispered.

"Oui, jus' two ol' amis catchin' up aft'r a while," Remy finished.

And all anyone could do was stand there in a shocked silence as the two Southerners gazed at each other; one with longing and guilt, and the other with betrayal and barely concealed hatred.

* * *

 **French terms:**

 **ma copine - my friend (feminine)**

 **un heure après midi - one hour past noon**

 **les étudiants - the students**

 **très gênant - very awkward**

 **quand - when**

 **les yeux - the eyes**

 **c'est pas vrai - it's not true**

 **Je travaillais pour quatre ans, mais maintenant tu es ici - I worked for four years, but now you are here**

 **Nous avons pensé que tu es mort - we thought you were dead**

 **Après notre amie est mort - After our friend (female) died**

 **Elle est mort - she is dead**

 **Non, mais elle est dans le coma - no, but she is comatose**

 **Well, hopefully that cleared up a couple of things and confused you more at the same time. I really appreciate constructive critisism, so please tell me whatever you think!**

 **Love you guys! Au revoir!**


	3. Chapter 3

The professor was the first to move. Clearing his throat, he spun his chair around to face two of the four people whose minds he couldn't read (the others being Magneto, of course, and Wolverine).

"Rogue, Gambit, may I ask you how you know each other?" He asked, but only as a formality. It was clear to both the Southerners that he expected an answer. Rogue couldn't speak. Her mind was spinning from the information Remy had revealed to her. Their best friend from youth was still in a coma. Still, after four years. Did Remy know it was her, Rogue's, fault? Did he suspect it when she ran away from New Orleans right after their friend fell into a coma?

"Rogue." The professor asked again, this time in a warning tone. Rogue shook her thoughts out of her head and pushed them to the back of her mind. _Deal with it later, when yah're alone, lahke yah always do._

"Sorry, Prof," she drawled, masking her emotions yet again, "Ah was just so shocked tah see Rem ovah here, in Bayville... Sorry," she apologized again, "Ah'm not answering yah're question properly. See, Rem and Ah grew up togethah, in N'Awlins."

"But we found you in Mississippi," Jean pointed out, "And so did Mystique." The New Recruits listened with awe. They had all heard the rumors, of course, that Rogue was once the enemy, but none of the original X-men ever confirmed it.

"M'ss'ss'ppi, chérie? Why'd y' go back t' dat place?" Remy asked with an air of innocence. During the conversation between the Professor and 'Rogue', he had figured out the perfect plan of revenge. "'N why didn' y' tell anyone 'bout de move?"

Rogue spun around to face him. "Ah - "

"Wow, Rogue, you know French!" Jamie started unexpectedly, seeing how uncomfortable the older girl looked and not trusting Gambit's innocent expression for an instant. "D'you think you can tutor me? Then I won't have to ask Jean, she's always daydreaming about S-" The poor boy was cut off by a red faced Jean, who was very embarrassed and a little hurt that _Rogue_ was preferred over her.

"Jamie, are you sure? I don't mind tutoring you-"

"Ah'd love to help with yah're French, Jamie," Rogue said, smiling at the younger boy. He alone was the only person in the mansion to try and get to know her despite her mutation. The others tolerated her, and saw her as more of an acquaintance, but Jamie Madrox had actually tried to bond with her many times and finally succeeded that morning with his persistence, and for that, she was tremendously grateful.

"Great!" Jamie said cheerfully, "I'll finish my other homework now, and then you can help me with my math and french homework! I'll see you in an hour!" And with that, he dashed off, setting a precedent for everyone else to follow. Awkwardly, they started to file out. Now that they had moved on from the subject of Rogue and Gambit's past together, the X-men slowly left the room, trickling out and talking about the new development in hushed whispers.

Rogue walked out last and headed straight for the library where she thought she could be alone. She pulled out an Anne Rice novel and curled up in an armchair to read, when -

" _Rebonjour, chérie_." [Hello again.]

Rogue jumped and looked up to see Remy again. She studied his face hard. In the four years since she had seen him, he had changed a lot. The puny, short, pimply thirteen year old boy she had left behind had grown into a strong, tall, handsome man.

"Happy seventeenth," she said by way of greeting, remembering that his birthday had passed a month before. The corner of Remy's mouth quirked up.

"So, chérie, what's wit' de makeup? Far as dis Cajun can r'member, y' used to hate de damn stuff."

"Tahmes change, Rem. An' besides, far as Ah can remember, yah never payed attention to that kind 'a stuff."

Remy nodded, deep in thought. They fell into an awkward silence, neither knowing what to say or do.

"Why'd y' leave?"

Rogue looked over at Remy. He was looking away, hiding his eyes from her. They both knew that she could read him like a book if she could see his eyes.

"Ah had tah," she swallowed, feeling a lump in her throat. They fell silent again.

"What happened tah _her_? D'yah know?" She asked suddenly, and Remy felt a mixture of awe and admiration for her lying skills, as well as disgust and hatred for asking that question. _What nerve dat méchant fille_ [wicked girl] _has, to aks Remy such a t'ing!_

"Dunno, p'tite. We foun' her afte' y' left. Sh' was unconsious, 'n she wouldn' wake up..." He trailed off, looking distraught. Rogue's eyes filled up with tears, and once again Remy marveled at her acting skills.

"Mah Gawd," she whimpered. Remy nodded solemnly.

The two old friends sat in the library in silence, this time not awkwardly but despairingly. In that room, at that time, all anyone could feel was overwhelming grief, overwhelming sadness...and overwhelming hatred.

* * *

Kurt took a deep breath and knocked on the door. He stepped back awkwardly and marveled at the sight of the Brotherhood Boarding house. It was practically in shambles. Kurt's heart thumped with every passing second. He could hear a muffled argument coming from the inside.

"Yo, get the door, Pietro!"

"Why don't you get it, you disgusting frog?"

"Yo, man, it's Toad. Not frog. Not cool, yo."

"Oh, for the sake of God, I'll get the damn door if you two just shut the hell up!"

Kurt heard footsteps getting closer and a couple of seconds later, he saw the door being yanked open by Lance Alvers.

Avalanche stopped short at the sight of the X-man. He eyed him suspiciously. "What do you want?"

Kurt wrung his hands together. "I need to speak vith Vanda and Pietro. I promise, zis is not a trap. Zis is important."

Lance hesitated for a second, instinctively wanting to refuse, but then remembering exactly who Kurt's mother was. "Fine, but we will be keeping an eye on you."

"Ja," Kurt agreed, and with another deep breath, he stepped inside.

"Wanda! Pietro! Visitor for you too!" Lance hollered. Kurt nearly fainted as he saw the Scarlet Witch descend from downstairs and her brother - _their_ brother - grumble his way towards them. Both of Magneto's children raised their eyebrows at the sight of him.

"Yes?" Wanda asked haughtily. Pietro just glared. Kurt gulped. He did _not_ want to be on the receiving end of her mutation.

"Uh, can ve sit down somevhere?"

"Of course not!" Pietro hissed. Wanda elbowed him sharply and looked at Kurt expressionlessly. She didn't show it, but she could sense the nervousness and innocence behind this X-man, and she had to admit she was more than a little curious as to what the matter was.

"We can. Let's go into the kitchen." She led the way and Kurt followed her, Pietro bringing up the rear. When they got into the kitchen, Wanda closed the door behind her and stood next to her twin, mirroring his pose of crossed arms and intimidating glare which they fixed on the blue boy.

"How old are you?" Kurt blurted out. The twins exchanged confused glances and looked at him like he was crazy, but Kurt didn't care. All the X-men thought they were fifteen, but Rogue had claimed to know from her dream that they were older than that.

"We're seventeen," Pietro said slowly, now very suspicious. He hadn't told anybody in Bayville how old he was, and he knew Wanda didn't either.

"Has Rogue ever absorbed eizher of you?" Kurt asked, randomly as before. The twins mutely shook their heads. Kurt let out a deep breath.

"Who is your muzzer?" At this, both twins blanched and fixed Kurt with angry stares. Kurt added quickly, "It's important! I svear!"

Wanda took a deep breath, debating whether or not to tell this stranger. After weighing the options, and a silent conversation with Pietro, she decided there was no harm in telling the blue boy what they knew. "We thought it was Magda Maximoff. She was a human."

"But recently," Pietro continued, "We found out that our mother is a mutant. Father didn't say who, but it's someone who worked for him. Probably still does, actually."

Kurt closed his eyes and stumbled back. These were his _siblings_! His _family_! Of course, his adopted family back in Germany was fantastic, but there was something a little different in meeting people who were biologically related to you. When he spoke, it was in a soft, breathless tone. "I know who your muzzer is."

The twins both started at that.

"Liar!" Pietro shouted suddenly, quickly zipping forward and yelling in Kurt's face. "How would you know?" Kurt met his gaze evenly.

"Because Rogue absorbed her. And she remembers zhat ze two of you vere born a year and a half before me."

"Before you...?" Wanda asked, wonder in her tone. Kurt looked at her. She was still expressionless, but her eyes had widened just a fraction. She was putting the pieces together.

"Ja," he croaked, "Your muzzer is Mystique. You are _meine schwester und mein bruder._ "

Though neither Maximoff knew a lick of German, they could certainly understand that. The three new found siblings stood still, frozen, basking in the information just revealed.

"We aren't really good at this whole family thing," Pietro whispered finally, begging the X-geek - no, his _little brother_ (God, that sounded weird) - to understand. Kurt nodded.

"Ja, but I am," he said hopefully, looking up shyly to meet the intense gaze of the Maximoff twins. For the first time since he had seen her, Wanda smiled. It was soft and small and hesitant, but it was a smile.

"So what do families normally do when they find a missing sibling?" She asked, and there was a timid curiosity as well as an amused jibe directed at Pietro that Kurt noticed. He supposed that the twins' reunion with each other went very differently.

Kurt hesitated ( _Is it too soon?_ he thought) before he moved closer to Wanda and wrapped his arms around the older girl. Wanda stiffened, then relaxed, and brought her own arms to hug her newfound little brother back. After a split second of uncertainty, Pietro moved forward and rested one hand on Wanda's shoulder and the other on Kurt's. Kurt rolled his eyes and removed one arm to include Pietro into the circle. Unlike his twin, Pietro didn't freak out over the hug; instead, he squeezed both of his siblings tightly. Kurt smiled, the tears he had been holding back spilling over down his cheeks.

"Zis. Zis is vhat families do."

* * *

Jean Grey sat outside the mansion garage, sighing in relief for the moment to herself. She closed her eyes tightly, glad that nobody was around to see her perfect mask crumble.

Nobody understood her.

Which sounded like a very cliche, angsty teenager thing to say, and being as privileged as she was it sounded bratty, but she meant it in the most literal way possible. She was pressured into being perfect, not by anybody in her family, but by herself. She _wanted_ to be the best at sports, she _wanted_ to be the smart girl, the nice girl, the golden girl, she _wanted_ to win all the awards and she certainly _wanted_ to make heads turn in awe of her beauty. And the reason why she wanted to be better than everyone was because she was always afraid of having nothing. She was afraid and insecure, and she knew it.

But now she was second best to someone and she hated it. And she felt horrible about feeling such a way, especially because that someone had it much worse than her, but she couldn't help hating the idea that someone was better than her. And not just better; _effortlessly_ better. Someone who was more liked by the New Recruits, someone who was better than her in a school subject, someone who was braver than her and stronger than her and more powerful than her.

And what made her feel absolutely despicable about the situation was that the person was Rogue.

Poor Rogue would never be able to touch someone, or have a real relationship. And it was obviously taking a toll on her. But her curse was also a blessing in disguise, Jean realized. Nobody would approach Rogue or start a real relationship with her, knowing she couldn't touch them, if they didn't actually care about her. Jean, on the other hand, never could gage the sincerity of her suitors. From the one time Jean was able to get into Rogue's head, when Rogue was unconscious after a fight and Jean was curious, Jean saw snippets of a different world, flashes of another life; red on black eyes (which she now recognized as Gambit's), long, blonde hair, a tinkling laugh. Then a furious force (probably Rogue) pushed Jean painfully out of her head, and Jean hadn't been able to get in since. The people who got to know Rogue in her own head said she was great to be around; funny, playful, and adventurous. Jean herself had never been described as funny - always mature and serious. She had never been playful - instead, she was gentle and calm. And as for adventurous - well, Jean secretly hated going on missions, because she preferred to talk her disagreements out.

Jean groaned audibly, banging her head back against the garage in frustration. How terribly selfish of her! What a horrible person she was, for being jealous of a girl who would never be able to touch another person!

"Whoa, there, Jean, what's wrong?"

Jean jumped at the voice. Snapping her head to the left, she breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Scott standing there, an adorably confused look on his face. "You scared me, Scott!" She shifted over to make room for him as he sat down beside her.

"So what was the head banging all about?" Scott asked her. Jean flushed. She could never lie to Scott. He always knew.

"I'm jealous of someone, and I feel bad about it because they're nothing but nice." Jean settled for a vague half-truth. Scott turned to look at her in surprise.

"What do you have to be jealous of? You have it all! You're great!" He said loyally. Jean smiled at him gratefully.

"That's awfully sweet, Scott, but I'm not great."

"Sure you are. Name one quality that you don't possess," Scott challenged.

"I'm not funny," Jean said with a small smile, "And I'm not fun to be around." Scott turned his face towards her, the light catching on his red sunglasses.

"Jean, you are funny. The reason the kids don't see that is because they're immature. You are fun to be around, just for adults, and not the kids you're surrounded by." Scott said gently. Jean started. She never thought of that.

"Thanks, Scott." She said softly, rubbing the young man's arm in thanks. He smiled down at her.

"Scott," she asked after a minute, "What do you think about Rogue? I mean, what we found out about her. How do you feel about it?"

Scott sighed. "Uneasy. She let us believe she was from Mississippi, when she had run away from New Orleans. There has to be a reason for that, something she doesn't want us to know. I've lost my trust in her," he confessed. Jean looked at him sympathetically. She knew that Scott had a soft spot for the Southern girl, even before she joined the X-men. He had sympathized with her, he had recognized the walls she built up to keep everyone out because they were exactly like the walls he had built up years before. The walls, Jean remembered, _she_ had broken through.

Scott believed in tough love, when it came to Rogue. He pushed her to the limits to make her stronger, he tried to give her the space he thought she needed on a personal level, and he did his very best to make Rogue into the ultimate X-man. Rogue's potential was the topic of many discussions of the senior X-men (Professor X, Storm, Hank, Logan, Jean and Scott), and it was agreed that she could be the firepower they needed whenever they needed.

Jean didn't feel jealous of Rogue for Scott's attention, however. Despite the rumors of Rogue's crush, she had noticed a complete lack of interest about anything Scott was saying from the younger girl. She did not appreciate Rogue's lack of attention in important matters, but she had to admit that it was a relief that the goth was not into their fearless leader.

"I don't trust her anymore either," Jean confessed, feeling even more guilt at voicing her doubt of a teammate. Scott smiled sadly at her, not surprised at all.

"The way she handled Kurt the other night..." Jean trailed off, shaking her head, "It was just _mean._ " Scott nodded in agreement.

"She could have broken it lightly," he said.

"I just want to know what Gambit thinks, you know?" Jean said desperately. Scott stiffened at the mention of the Cajun. Jean noticed and held back a smile.

"Why?" Scott asked coolly. Jean laid her hand on his arm.

"How would you feel if someone you thought was gone came back?" She asked him. Scott furrowed his brow.

"I'd be pretty upset, but I'd also be glad they were okay. That would be the overwhelming part, probably."

"Did Gambit look happy to see Rogue?" Jean asked him suggestively. Scott's eyebrows shot up. Gambit had seemed shocked, yes, and upset...but there was no relief. There was no happiness at seeing an old friend.

"Exactly."

* * *

Friday nights at the mansion were the most hectic. Most of the New Recruits were running around in the lawn, while the older students had extensive Danger Room training. Afterwards, the DR kids would shower and change, the person making dinner would serve it, and the rest of the time was spent herding the New Recruits and cajoling them to eat the food their peers made.

In the Danger Room, Wolverine was trying to gage Gambit's strength. He passed the lower levels earlier, the ones meant for the New Recruits. Now Wolverine was deciding who to set Gambit up against to see his skills against a senior X-man.

"Alright," he growled, "Who wants to go against Gumbo, here?"

None of the kids volunteered. Remy smirked.

"Since dere don' seem t' be anyone willin', can Remy choose?"

His question was met with dead silence. Nobody could believe he had the guts to ask Wolverine if he could choose. They waited with bated breath for the answer.

"...Sure, Gumbo, but don't ever ask again," Wolverine snarled finally, unable to give a reason for Remy not to. The Cajun grinned.

"'Lrigh', Remy picks Roguey," he said, the smile on his face growing when Rogue turned red with rage.

"Ah toldja, Rem, don' call meh that!" She stormed, stomping forward to face him. Remy raised an eyebrow.

"Oh, woul' y' rathe' I called y' -"

"NO!" Rogue exploded frantically. "Ah ain't her anymore."

Evan turned to Scott with wide eyes. "He totally knows her real name!"

"Ve have got to get him to tell us! Who _is_ she?" Kurt said in a hushed voice. Jean and Scott exchanged glances. Yes, who _was_ Rogue?

"Quiet, Stripes!" Logan barked. "Okay, Gumbo, this is hand to hand only, no powers allowed."

Remy gave a slight nod, not taking his eyes off the girl in front of him. "Oui, Monsieur."

"I bet he's going to win," Scott said, "After all, Rogue doesn't know combat." There were murmurs of agreement. Rogue was their secret weapon; everyone covered her until she got close enough to absorb the enemy.

"Go!" Logan yelled. The X-men turned to watch.

In an instant, Remy's foot was sweeping Rogue's legs from under her. But, to the shock of everyone watching, she grabbed Remy's foot with her legs, squeezing tightly as she threw him off balance, straightening up in the process. Recovering quickly, he sent a fist out to shallowly hit her shoulder to distract her. Rogue dodged it and sent a punch of her own. Both were smirking at each other. Suddenly, Remy wrestled her to the ground, pinning her arms above her. Bringing her knees to her chest, Rogue sent a mighty kick into Gambit's stomach, winding him. She got up again, and struck while he was still down. She placed her arm against his throat, applying enough pressure to make it uncomfortable, but not enough to hurt him. Gambit pulled the same stunt she did - he used his legs to push her off of him, sending her to the ground.

It looked a little like a dance, for both were able to quickly improvise their next moves, acting swiftly and gracefully, even when the other gained the upper hand. Generally, Gambit was offensive, while Rogue was defensive, though it seemed to all the X-men that there was a bit of role reversal going on. As the fight drew to an end, Gambit had a struggling Rogue pinned against the wall. Logan was about to call it, when -

"Oomph!" Instead of continuing to struggle, Rogue went limp and allowed herself to be dead weight in Gambit's arms. While the Cajun was more than strong enough to hold her, he was not expecting the extra weight and crumpled to the ground, Rogue on top of him.

"I'm gon' beat y' eventually, chérie," he whispered into her ear. It sounded playful, but Remy meant it as a grim promise, not as the joking statement Rogue would take it as.

"Yah can certainly trah, Swamp Rat."

"Bayou was y' home t', for a lon' time."

"Ah'm still a M'ss'ss'ppi gal, Rem."

Wolverine called it then, and immediately made Gambit a senior member. The rest of the X-men stared in shock at Rogue. She always let them treat her as one of the physically weaker members, when she could certainly hold her own in a fight. How could they trust her? What more would be revealed? What other secrets was she hiding?

The senior members exchanged uneasy glances. Slowly, very slowly, they were all losing trust in one of their own.

* * *

 **ahh this chapter is longer. i'm trying things out. please let me know if you prefer longer or shorter chapters, and i'll try to comply.**

 **love you all!**

 **i also love constructive criticism :P!**

 **-At Least I Didn't Fake It**


	4. Chapter 4

**I dont know if i already put a disclaimer here, but if not, I DON'T OWN X-MEN EVOLUTION. I DON'T OWN MOST OF THE DIALOGUE IN THIS CHAPTER EITHER.**

 **sorry about the long time. school, you know how it is.**

* * *

Remy could only watch in confusion as he surveyed the stand off before him. The professor had just chewed everyone out for failing the Magneto simulation in the Danger Room, something that was highly uncharacteristic of him, and had then brought in some "new members." Why this was the right time for that, Remy didn't know, especially considering that the Wolf-man was missing and they all were searching for him.

All five of the new members looked strange to Gambit. There was one boy with silver hair and a cocky grin. He was, unfortunately, the most normally dressed out of all of them. There was also a large boy who seemed to have a kindly face but produced food out of nowhere (a pocket, probably, the thief in Remy corrected). A third, who seemed to be the leader of them, had dark hair and tanned skin, but for whatever reason wore a glass windshield over his face as a kind of hat; the fourth boy was small and green and smelled bad. The last of the newcomers, a girl with short dark hair and extremely dark makeup, reminded him in looks of someone... he just couldn't place who. Those expressions of hers seemed quite familiar...

"You vant _us_ to vork vith _them_?!" Kurt asked in confusion. The silver haired one zoomed up. _Super speed,_ Gambit noted.

"Nice to see ya too, baby bro." Remy choked on his spit. _Brother_?

"Pietro, you are my family, and so is Vanda, but ve have such different ideas! How are ve supposed to vork together?" Kurt demanded of the Professor.

"No way!" Kitty said vehemently. Gambit saw her glare venomously at the glass-hat kid.

"This is a joke, rahght?" Rogue drawled from beside him. Gambit looked over at her and gauged her emotions. To everyone, Rogue seemed emotionless, like always. But Remy had known her since she was little, and he knew exactly how to read her - especially since he was the one who had taught her a good poker face. By the slight tenseness in her jaw, he could tell she was displeased, and by the quirk in her right eyebrow, he could tell she was pondering something in her mind.

"Not a chance!" Said Spyke, eyeing Pietro warily.

"Professor, you're not serious, are you? After what they did to us?!" Kitty's voice got higher as she got more agitated.

"Hey, we won, you lost, get over it!" Pietro said. Remy's eyebrows rose. These jokers beat the trained fighters he knew to be the X-men?

"They cheated," Rogue muttered next to him, "They're all extremely weak, except for Wanda. She can control probabilities. She can't control her powers, though. Last time we fought the Brotherhood, Wanda was new and she was a powerhouse we weren't expecting." Remy nodded, understanding what she meant.

But judging by the hatred shown by both sides, Remy was extremely perplexed as to how the two groups would work together. He could only watch with astonishment as Scott, Golden Boy Scott Summers, walked away from the Professor's side.

Less than an hour later, they were all strapped up in an X-jet, with the exception of Kitty (who was copiloting the other one with Beast) and Scott, who, to Gambit's growing confusion, had kept up his rebellious attitude. The Professor even decided to leave without him.

Remy tried not to look at Rogue, who was sitting next to him. It was infuriating to admit, but he was starting to wonder why she was so sad all of the time. _Non, Remy don't care 'bout dat. 'Member what she did to y'? 'Member what she did to_ her _?_

But as he glanced over to those tired, forest green eyes and defeated posture, he couldn't help being curious. _Dis ain' gonna end well._

* * *

They landed in the middle of some warehouses and immediately split into teams. Kitty, Beast, and Toad were part of one, while Pietro, Avalanche, and Wanda made up another. Some of the other X-men split up, but Rogue was working with a larger group of Jean, Spyke, Remy and Kurt in searching the immediate area around Magneto's four orbs.

"Confirmed; the orbs are empty," Jean said into her comm. Rogue walked up next to the older girl.

"Yah know, I don't get this." She said warily.

"Yeah, they gotta know we're here," Evan added. Kurt BAMFed next to them, and Remy sidled up in between Jean and Rogue.

"Now vhat? There's no sign of them!" Kurt said.

Next to her, Rogue saw Gambit stiffen. She full on stared when he pulled out a pack of playing cards.

"Y'all shoul' get away fo' a bit," Remy warned them. He had obviously seen something the rest of them hadn't. He charged a card and let it float.

"Run!" Jean said, understanding his plan. He was going to lure them out with a bang.

The other four scattered, just as the bomb went off. Remy, who had protected himself with a coat of energy, immediately set another card bomb up.

It seemed to work, as a large metal structure dismantled before the X-Mens' eyes and revealed Magneto, Sabertooth, and two strangers. One of them was laughing quite maniacally, waving what seemed to be a giant flame thrower's nozzles around. He had orange hair, and a grin rivaling that of the Joker's. The other one was the complete opposite, Rogue noted. He had dark hair, was covered in a form of armor, and looked very serious indeed.

The guy who was obviously enjoying himself pointed one of the nozzles at Hank's group, and the X-men could only watch in shock as a fire bear leapt towards the blue mutant. They all jumped out of the way in time, fortunately, but Hank was immediately engaged in a fight with Sabertooth.

Rogue felt a pounding in her head and her vision momentarily blurred and went black. She saw, in her mind's eye, giant robots tearing through the lot, firing at the mutants. _Sentinels,_ she realized, but she didn't know how. She saw the Institute blowing up, and Scott herding the New Recruits to the Cerebro Room just in time.

The fire guy turned his attention towards their group. Evan and Kurt managed to jump away in time, but Rogue was frozen to the spot. _Why was this all so familiar?_ _How did she know the fire kid?_ "Pyro? John?" She whispered. For whatever reason, she knew that name was correct. Jean grabbed her arm and started running in the other direction. Rogue would have been swallowed by the giant flame if Storm hadn't caused it to rain on Pyro.

She ran around the corner of an old building and gasped as she nearly ran into Gambit. He had an unreadable look in his eyes - she felt a pang. She was _always_ able to read Remy. Gambit whirled around, taken aback.

"Remy," Rogue whispered, unconsciously reaching out for his hand. Remy flinched away from her, and she drew back, mentally berating herself. She stumbled back, her shoulder thudding painfully against the building as she raised a hand to her head. Again, her vision went black but a different scene entered her head.

 _The Institute will self - destruct in one minute,_ said a mechanical female voice as Scott and the New Recruits tried to shut down the demolition program. Rogue gasped. As she listened to the conversation, she heard Scott panicking.

"There's no time!" He said, "We only have fifteen seconds left!"

Suddenly, Rogue remembered that the Cerebro Room was near indestructible. _C'mon, Scott, get them to the room, you can do this,_ she silently prayed in her head. In her mind's eye, Scott suddenly perked up. _Who was that?_ She heard him ask, except his mouth didn't move. _Jean? Professor?_

 _There's no time, Scott! Run!_ Rogue urged, taken aback that he could actually hear her. Scott snapped back into leader mode. "Follow me!" he barked, just as the ten second countdown started. Rogue was thrown away from her vision quite forcibly, and looked up to see Remy.

"Rogue?" He muttered. Rogue shook her head of any remaining cloudiness.

"Sorry," she breathed, looking into Remy's gorgeous red on black eyes, "Ah'm goin' tah go join Hank. Ah'll see yah soon, Rem." The endearment slipped out without her meaning to, and they both winced.

Rogue ran up to Hank and Sabertooth, who were wrestling on the ground. As Sabertooth turned away, Rogue borrowed some of Hank's power and yelled, "So long, hare-brain!"

With a grunt, she launched herself feet first into Sabertooth's chest, knocking him down to the ground. She only had a few seconds to regain her balance before the earth started trembling at her feet. And it wasn't because of Lance.

All of the fighting ceased as the mutants tumbled to the ground, trying desperately to maintain some form of balance. The ground cracked at their feet, and suddenly everyone was at the bottom of some sort of building, the wind knocked right out of their chests.

Rogue looked up and froze. "Uh-oh," she said and got everyone's attention. That is, at least until the safety of what must have been dozens of guns clicked off. And _they_ were being held at gunpoint.

"Nobody move," Storm ordered tersely. Toad, ever the smart ass, replied with,

"Who wants to move?"

As the mutants broke off into hushed whispers of their own, Rogue did a quick head count and realized with a sinking heart that none of Magneto's lackeys were there.

 _This_ was Magneto's plan.

Loud, crashing footsteps sounded in the distance. Out of the corner of her eye, Rogue saw Remy tense and charge three cards.

"Men! Move out!" Yelled one man, obviously some sort of commander.

Rogue gulped. Shit was about to get real.

* * *

Remy cursed as the giant robot like creatures came closer. The group had managed to get out, but just barely. Now, one of those huge scary things were approaching them.

Nobody started an attack. They had no idea what this thing was capable of. It shot a giant purple beam from its chest, which Beast barely dodged and which blasted the ground on which he had been standing.

As Storm started an attack, Remy looked up to see a helicopter circling above them, a man's pale face and a camera pressed against the window. _Crap,_ _so t'at's what dis is all 'bout._

Storm's lightning threw the robot back, but it seemed to prove otherwise futile, as the robot got bigger and started open firing on the group. Remy ran around behind one of the robots as Evan shot some spikes into the robot's mechanic system and Blob threw a truck at it. Pandemonium broke out as Lance destroyed roads, Kitty phased through cars, Jean telekinetically threw cars at the robots, more news helicopters joined the scene, and cops arrived. As Remy watched, Blob was captured in a green sort of goo until he was frozen in place. Next was Evan. He himself was targeted next, but was able to create well timed explosions to misdirect the goo. Out of the corner of his eye, Remy saw Storm get up. She was obviously furious and created a tornado which was to catch the robot. What none of them were expecting, however, was the robot being able to fly.

Remy watched with horror as the force of its landing sent Kitty and Rogue crashing into a nearby building. His heart thudded against his chest painfully, though he didn't know why. _Be okay, please be okay,_ he thought, and realized exactly what he was saying. No. He didn't want her to be okay. It was the least she could do, get badly injured. But why wasn't his heart agreeing with him? He only let go of the breath he hadn't realized he had been holding when Rogue shook her head and made to get up. That relief didn't last long, however, as she was trapped in the goo just like the others. Beast went to attack the robot, but was thrown back. He too was trapped in a green glob.

The fighting went on around him. He watched and dodged attacks, trying to protect his friends. Through the chaos, he saw Kurt and had to hand it to the blue boy - he had guts _and_ a good, strategic mind. The teleporter blew off one of the robots' arms, unfortunately sending it crashing through a building.

"Gambit!" Storm yelled, "Let's meet up with the others!" The two of them raced behind a building where Toad, Jean, Kitty, Avalanche and Kurt had already gathered. Kurt swore under his breath suddenly.

"Meine schwester," he grumbled, teleporting away and returning with Wanda. "Vanda, vhy did you choose now to confront him? Ve are in battle!" He complained.

"Get in! Now!" The Professor yelled, pulling the jet to face them. Gambit felt shock seep straight into him.

"What about the others?!" Jean gasped.

"We'll have to come back for them." The Professor said tersely. "Move it!"

"He's right," Storm ordered, seeing that nobody obeyed, "Everybody, onboard!"

Remy felt a pang as he glanced back once. Rogue was nowhere in sight. He felt his eyes begin to sting as he realized that she had been taken away, along with the rest of them.

 _Why do I care,_ he wondered, _When I hate de fille? I hate her, dat's true, mais I'm not cruel enough t' wan' her t' lose control over de situation. Not again, not afte' de hell she went t'rough as a gosse_ [kid]. _I may hate her, but I don' t'ink she deserves t' go t'rough dat ever again. Nobody does._

The ride back was spent in a terse silence. It was obvious from the stance that for once, Jean Grey did not agree with the dear Professor. Kurt's tail was waving about in a frantic fury, and Kitty's eyes were welling up with tears. Lance and Wanda had been changing confused glances throughout as Lance tried to console Kitty and Wanda let her brother hug her tightly. Remy himself had to keep from charging the cards he was nervously shuffling. In fact, Toad seemed to be the only one there that was unperturbed.

The quiet in the X-jet was only broken when Kurt gasped and said, "Vhat happened?!"

Everyone rushed towards the window, and Gambit's heart sank as he saw the ruins of the mansion. Kitty started sobbing, as this was the straw that broke the camel's back.

"What about -" Jean cut herself off. "Where are the students?!"

"Oh no!" Kitty wailed, turning her head into Jean's shoulder. As the X-jet landed, they all rushed outside.

"I don't see them," Jean breathed, and then shouted, "Bobby? Amara!"

"Over here," came a voice, and Gambit swiveled around to see Scott leading all the New Recruits from the woods, clothing torn and ragged.

"Oh, Scott!" Jean cried as she threw her arms around the other teen, "What happened? How did you guys survive this?!"

Vaguely, Gambit heard one of the kids explain something about the Cerebro room, but his eyes were fixed on Scott who made a beeline towards the Professor. Remy took an unconscious step forward as Scott grabbed the front of Professor X's coat, picked him up, and shouted, "It was you! You did this!" He could only watch in shock as Scott threw the Professor to the ground. Gambit charged one of his cards and got into a defensive position, when suddenly -

The Professor _got to his feet_ , laughing. "Yes," he admitted, "I did do it." Gambit's eyes widened as the Professor morphed and suddenly a blue woman was in his place, with red hair and an evil grin.

"Muzzer," Kurt whimpered, and Wanda took a sharp breath in.

"And now things are about to get _much_ worse," Mystique continued.

* * *

 **omg im so sorry it's been forever! i feel really bad, but school is school i suppose.**

 **please leave me your honest opinions / criticisms. i really appreciate it.**

 **love you all! bye!**

 **\- at least i didn't fake it**


	5. Chapter 5

Rogue could only watch helplessly as the men started to strap Blob down, on a stretcher next to Logan. Next to her on both sides were Spyke and Beast, all three of them in giant tubes. As they started questioning poor Fred, she couldn't bear it any longer. Looking at Wolverine's state, she knew the consequences of resistance and defiance - torture.

"Wait!" She shouted, right as they were about to inject Blob. They all stopped and stared at her. "Ah'll talk, jus' leave 'im alone!"

"Rogue, no!" Mr. McCoy gasped. Spyke fixed her with a hard look.

One of the scientists gave her an ominous grin. "Very well." Turning to the others, he barked, "You heard the girl! Put the gigantic one back!"

"And him," Rogue added, pointing at Wolverine. With a nod, they complied.

"The hell are ya doin', kid?" Wolverine growled. She flashed him a stern look as they brought her out of her tube and put Wolverine in it instead.

"Ah don't wanna let y'all get hurt if Ah can do somethin' about it," she sniffled, very much playing the part of frightened teenager.

The scientist who seemed to be in charge gave her what he obviously thought was a reassuring smile, but was more like the grin of a cat stalking its prey. "Let's start with a few basic questions. What's your birth name?"

"Ah dunno."

The scientist blinked. "Excuse me?"

"Ah said, Ah dunno. Ah was abandoned as a one year old baby, see, 'n never really got a name from mah adopted Momma 'n Daddy let alone whoever left meh outside their house. My friends named me when Ah was about six."

The scientist sighed. "Okay. What did they call you?"

Rogue gave him a smirk. "Newbie. We had just moved, see."

The scientist was furious now. "What name do you currently go by?" He gritted out.

"Well, if yah wanted tah know what people call me, sugah, why didn't cha say so in the first place?" Rogue said brightly. "Ah go by Rogue."

She felt a prick of a needle in her arm and looked down to see blood being taken from her. She blinked. Once they took three vials, they injected some sort of liquid into her.

"What are y'all doin'?" She asked, unable to mask the fear in her voice. The scientist grinned.

"Just needed to make sure you wouldn't struggle, or play your cute games with us anymore."

And indeed, as he spoke, Rogue felt a deep heaviness settle into her body. She was numb from the neck down, couldn't even wiggle her fingers. She was scared now.

"Now, is there a giant mutant gathering place? A place where groups of you plot against humankind?" Asked the scientist. Rogue swallowed.

"Well, no, we don't plot against humankind. Ah go tah school, 'n all the other mutants yah have on tape, save three, do too. But we live togethah, in a mansion in Bayville."

He switched tactics on her. "What are the powers of all the other people you see?"

She heard Wolverine growl lowly as she looked at Spyke contemplatively. The younger boy glared furiously at her, unable to believe how she had betrayed them.

"The kid with the bad dye job is Roger Twist. He can turn into a turtle, and he can talk tah them."

The mutants blinked. _What?_ Wolverine and Beast exchanged glances when they realized the game she was playing - lie about the more important things but add little truths in there so they didn't know what to trust. Beast sat down in his tube and started to pray for the girl. Wolverine growled angrily - dumb kid!

Rogue continued. "The blue one ovah there is Oliver Burton. His mutation is to slow tahme down. The growly man ya had over there, earlier -"

"We know about him. Wolverine," the scientist explained impatiently, "Or rather, Weapon X. He can heal quickly and has heightened senses, as well as adamantium claws." Rogue raised an eyebrow.

"Well, he ain't quite Weapon X no more, see. He goes by the name James Howlett, now." She glanced at Logan, who looked shocked at the mention of that name. He knew it from somewhere - but how?

"And Cody ovah there can produce food outta anythin'. Real useful tah have when yah're impoverished." Rogue swallowed, still unable to move. Fighting to retain her calm expression, she asked, "That all yah wanted tah know 'bout 'em?"

The scientist smiled frighteningly. "Yes. About them. Now, you are a different story entirely."

* * *

Remy paced back and forth. Jean watched him with weary eyes. "Stop it, Gambit," she sighed, "It isn't going to help them."

Remy fixed her with a furious glare. "Den why aren't we helpin' dem?" He asked, gritting his teeth. Scott's jaw clenched.

"We need to find out where they are, first. Look, I know it's scary, and we want them back too, but Wolverine and Mr. McCoy are strong enough to protect the others. Spyke, Blob and Rogue will be okay."

But Remy was shaking his head in dissent. "Gambit knows dat's what y' have t' believe, but de truth is dat neither of y' understand!" He stalked out the door and let it slam behind him. Wanda and Kurt looked at him.

Wanda was smiling, which was shocking for Remy to see. Far as he knew, that girl hated everything and everyone, including her own twin. But that seemed to change in the presence of her little brother. Remy felt a pang in his chest. He knew all to well the joys of having an innocent person love you. Young Kurt was certainly a white spot in an otherwise dark world where Wanda was concerned.

Gambit strode past them and walked to his room almost in a daze. That smile! He had seen that smile before. He sat on his bed with a sigh and pulled out a shoebox from under Bobby's (his roommate) bed. Always best to hide your most precious possessions in places nobody would think to look. He opened the box and gently took out an old, crumpled picture. In it, four young children were playing near a lake. The eldest was a pretty blonde girl, about the age of ten. She was in little pigtails and a t-shirt and shorts and had a mischievous grin resting on her lips as her blue eyes sparkled. She was splashing another blonde girl with the water she was ankle deep in. The other blonde was wearing a sundress and was caught mid jump in the photo. Remy could recall the shrieks of excitement the younger girl gave as she tried to avoid the water coming her way. He smiled sadly. Belladonna no longer had that childish joy about her. In the picture, Remy himself had been playing, sneaking up behind the little eight-year old Bella, ready to push her fully in the water. His shirt sleeves had been pushed back and his pant legs pulled up right above his knees as he got ready to pounce.

And finally, his eyes turned to the last figure on the old photo. Sitting on a tree branch, barefoot and legs swinging, was Rogue. Even back then her green eyes were breathtaking, and, like him, everyone suspected she would be a mutant because of her white bangs. She had a soft, shy smile on her face as she surveyed the three playing in the water below her. Remy's heart clenched when he remembered the exchange they had later that day.

 _"But Marie," whined young Bella, "Why can't y' jus' hop in de water? It ain't dat cold!"_

 _"Yeah," Remy agreed, "Come join us!" He begged her. He came up close to her and grabbed her arm, trying to pull her into the water to join their game. Her eyes widened and she tried to jerk away._

 _"Lemme go, Rem! It ain't funny!" She shouted, panicking._

 _The eldest in their group spoke up. "Leave her alone, Remy." Being the leader of their little clique, she had the final say. Remy let go immediately and Marie backed away. Remy looked at her, hurt. He had lived on the streets! He knew what that look meant! She was afraid of him!_

 _"Whatever. Didn' wanna play wit' a dumb nameless galopine_ [brat/urchin] _like y' anyway!" He spit out spitefully. Marie's eyes filled with tears, and Remy realized his mistake._

 _"I didn't mean-"_

 _"Save it, yah dumb Swamp Rat!" The nine year old girl shrieked at the ten year old boy, green eyes swimming with fury and tears._

 _"Hey, wait -" Belladonna interjected._

 _"Who're y' callin' a Swamp Rat, y' half-drowned River Rat?!" Remy yelped angrily._

 _"Remy Etienne LeBeau!" Yelled his older brother Henri, who was walking straight up to the four of them. He had obviously overheard the last part of the argument. "'Apologize t' Marie right now!"_

 _Remy glared at him in a stubborn silence._

 _Sixteen year old Henri checked his watch. "Je suis un impatient homme, Remy. Maintenant, s'il te plait." [ I am an impatient man. Now, please.]_

 _Remy growled. He glanced over at Marie, with no intentions of apologizing, and then he froze._

 _Silent tears were making their way down her face as her green eyes stared through him to his very soul. Shame swept through young Remy. He hadn't meant to make Marie cry! He was just upset that she was scared of him!_

 _"Marie-" he started, stepping closer to her._

 _"No, don' call meh that, Remy LeBeau! Ah don' have a name, remembah?" She choked out, looking away before running as fast as she could away from him.  
_

 _Henri frowned. "What she mean, she don' have a name?"_

Remy shivered. He himself had grown up haunted. He had been given up as soon as he could crawl, and nobody wanted to adopt him because of his eyes. He was left to pick the pockets of the rich in New Orleans. Then he turned six and tried to pick the pocket of the King of Thieves, who instantly adopted him and taught him the ways of the Guild. One year later, when he was seven, Marie and her family came to live next to them. Of course, Marie didn't have a name back then. That should have been the first sign to him that something was wrong. He groaned. Why was she so confusing?! She was one of his best friends when they were younger, and then she had betrayed him - all of them, really - so now he hated her.

Or rather, wanted to hate her.

He looked again at the picture and studied her intently. How could someone this sweet and innocent become the power hungry monster he had witnessed with his own two eyes? He felt a deep despair envelop him. He wanted to _understand_. He wanted revenge too, but if he understood why she had done what she did, he would feel better. To be fair, he was furious with her. He wanted to get even with her - what she did was unforgivable. Yet, he couldn't help but worry about her, which was probably the most infuriating part of it all. He fell back onto his bed in classic teen angst and groaned, running a hand through his hair.

Whatever. He'd be glad to get her home again. At least then he'd be able to hate her in peace.

* * *

"Muzzer?" Asked Kurt tentatively, coming up behind the blue woman. Mystique jumped.

"Kurt," she said, a hint of longing in her eyes. "Yes, my son, what is it?"

"Muzzer, vhy did you do zis?" Kurt asked in barely a whisper, his eyes stinging with tears. "Vhy did you kidnap ze Professor and zhen send us into danger? Vhy do you vork for Magneto?"

Raven sighed, shifting into the form she maintained when she gave birth to him. She had straight black hair which fell to her shoulders in a strict fashion, an aristocratic nose and cold, blue eyes - the same blue that was the color of both her's and Kurt's natural skin. "Oh, Kurt, it is so difficult to explain. You must understand - Erik, Charles and I have all been close for so long, we do not see each other as enemies, but rather as distant family. Like the family Americans are surrounded by during Thanksgiving dinner, we support each other when really necessary, and we do all care about each other, but only at the most basic sense of the word; but when it comes to political views and beliefs, we have drastically different ideas and outlooks."

"But you kidnapped ze Professor!" Kurt burst out, unable to understand. Raven smiled sadly.

"That I did, and I assure you he is safe. As for why - well, I could have done it in a gentler way, I suppose, but this was more of a personal punishment to Charles for something he promised to do for me and never did. He will understand, and in a few weeks, all will be forgotten once more."

"Ze Professor would never break a promise!" Kurt shook his head stubbornly, tail waving defiantly behind him. Raven turned away from him partially, so he wouldn't see the lone tear slipping down her cheek.

"You can choose to believe or disbelieve whatever you wish. I am your mother, Kurt, but I have no right to tell you how to feel. The truth from my side is as follows: Something very personal happened to me over a decade ago, and Charles swore to track down the person I needed to find. He was never able to."

Kurt felt like he had been slapped in the face. "Anna. You're talking about Anna."

Raven froze. "How do you -"

"I know about Pietro and Vanda too. Rogue told me." Kurt murmured, gathering his mom up in a hug. He felt her stiffen, not at the contact, but rather at the words.

"She had no right-"

"I know. But it is in ze past now." Kurt pulled away slightly. "I have one more question."

"Yes?"

"Who is my fazher?"

* * *

The phone was ringing throughout the mansion. She was ignoring it, sitting on her bed and lazily flipping through magazines, her blue eyes dull with boredom. The phone continued to ring. She was now slightly annoyed at the loud, unrelenting sound. Someone needed to pick that up. Moments later, the ringing stopped, and she sighed with relief, only to groan out loud when a knock sounded on her bedroom door.

"Yes?"

"Sorry, miss, the phone is for you."

She sighed and brushed a golden curl out of her eyes in exasperation. She opened the door, received her phone, and shut it again in the maid's face. She narrowed her eyes and said sharply, "Speak."

"Belle?"

"Remy!" Belladonna Boudreaux cried out, all of her bad temper melting away at the sound of her friend. "What is it? Y' haven't called in f'rever!" She sat down on her bed and sprawled out, kicking her legs back and forth. "I got a bone t' pick wit' y'. Why didn't y' call earlier?" She chastised.

" _Je suis desolé,_ Bella. Dere's been a lot goin' on." Remy hesitated on the line, and Belladonna could sense his distress.

"What's wrong?" She asked him in concern. He sighed.

" _Elle est ici_." [She is here].

Belladonna stopped short. She opened her mouth to speak, but found she couldn't muster up a single thing to say. Tears stung in her eyes, but she refused to let them fall.

"I'm gon' get her," Remy continued, and Belladonna could hear the anger and pure vengeance in his voice. "I'm gon' make her life a misery."

Belladonna stayed silent. She couldn't speak at all. She understood Remy's feelings against Marie, but at the same time, she was tired of hating her.

"Belle?"

Belladonna smirked. Remy was always able to tell how she was feeling. "Oui?"

"What're y' thinking?"

Belladonna sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Look, Rem, I'm angry too, _mais_ I don' wan t' hurt de girl. I'm tired, Remy. I wan t' be done, I want t' move on."

Through the silence on the other end, she could tell that Remy was upset with her. "Okay," he said in a clipped voice. "Well, I'm still gon' extract m' revenge, so I'll jus' call y' after I succeed."

"À bientôt, Remy," Belladonna smiled softly. "We miss y' here in New Awlins."

"I miss New Awlins too, Belle."

They hesitated now. The subject of the wedding neither of them really wanted was heavy on their minds, seeing as Remy was too much of a womanizer to settle down at eighteen, and Belladonna was gay (but refused to tell her family for fear of rejection). They were both trying to postpone the upcoming nuptials, but didn't know how best to do so.

"I have t' go." Remy said finally. Belladonna nodded, though he couldn't see hr.

"Oui. À bientôt, Remy."

"À bientôt, Belle."

Belladonna hung up and let exactly three tears fall. One was for their friend, lying comatose in a hospital, one was for good times that had suddenly turned sour and then bitter, and one was for herself, for loosing that blessed life she led in the golden age that was their childhood.

* * *

 **I'm sorry for not posting this sooner, guys! Finals finished a week ago, but I had to prep for a trip this whole past week.**

 **hope you enjoyed this!**

 **please leave a comment, constructive criticism is always appreciated!**

 **-At Least I Didn't Fake It**


	6. Chapter 6

_Rogue had been prodded and poked for days. Blood samples had been taken multiple times, pints and pints of it. Rogue was fading in and out of consciousness, and had been doing so since right after she had been captured. Her head was pounding, and she was positive they had drugged her up multiple times._

 _"Effects of his..."_

 _"...healing?"_

 _"...inconclusive data..."_

 _"Weak pulse..."_

 _"Some kind of mutant?"_

 _"Weapon X?"_

 _Rogue - no, not Rogue, James Howlett - roared. Being a feral mutant, she - no, he - instinctively tried to mask the terror he felt. Before he passed out completely, he could only think of one person - his girlfriend. His breathing got easier. Thinking of her and their family centered him. It gave him something to focus on._

My name is James Howlett, _he thought fiercely,_ and I have a family to go home to. _He roared once again, doing his best to keep the image of the two most important people in his life imprinted against his mind._

"Rogue!" Kitty whispered furiously, shaking the older girl, trying to wake her from her slumber. Since they had rescued the captured mutants two months before, Rogue had suffered terrible nightmares. Everyone else assumed it was from the experiments that were performed on Rogue. Kitty knew better, though. The mutants were in there for barely a day, and Rogue had never left the sight of either Hank or Logan, and neither of them acted like anything was out of the ordinary with Rogue. Considering that Hank was the most caring person she had met, and that Logan was fiercely overprotective over all the children, Kitty concluded that Rogue was not harmed - physically, at least - in the slightest. Psychologically was, of course, another matter entirely.

"Rogue!" Kitty whisper-yelled, and this time Rogue sat straight up in the bed, covered in sweat, letting out a dangerous growl and brandishing her fists threateningly. Fists, which Kitty noticed with astonishment, had three bone claws each.

"Rogue," Kitty whispered. Rogue looked around wildly, then caught sight of her claws, and the skin healing rapidly around them.

"What's happening to me?" Asked Rogue in distress. Kitty gulped, not noticing that Rogue's accent was gone.

"I'm, like, taking you to the Professor, okay?" She gently told her roommate, barely managing to hide her trembling hands behind her back as she walked back and forth nervously around their room. Rogue stared at her for a moment and then said something that made Kitty freeze on the spot.

"I can smell your fear, bub. Stop with the damn pacing."

* * *

Professor X laced his fingers together and rested his chin on top of them. Concern flared through him as he faced the teenage girl before him. She was a junior in high school, only sixteen years old. And looking at her in the middle of the night when she had no makeup on, he could see how young for her age she really looked. She was shaking from head to toe in terror.

"So you can remember things that even Wolverine cannot," the Professor mused. Rogue shuddered.

"Ah thought it wore off," she muttered, "The last tahme Ah absorbed him was durin' training before we were captured."

The Professor raised his eyebrows, the only indication of the surprise that was going through his racing mind. "I see."

Rogue shivered, hugging herself tightly. "What's going on, Professor?" She whimpered. Xavier had never seen the normally stoic girl so shaken and fragile before, not even when she dreamed scenes from Mystique's past. With a jolt, he lifted his head from its resting position on his hands.

 _Those dreams...could it be?_

The Professor stared at Rogue for a long minute, debating on whether or not to tell her of his suspicions. He could be wrong, of course, but the poor girl deserved to know.

"Rogue, I want you to bear in mind that this is only a theory, and that by no means is this exactly what's happening to you." Rogue nodded.

"Ah understand."

Charles sighed. "I believe that when you absorb people, their psyches and memories aren't the only things that remain with you." Rogue stared at him in shock, understanding immediately.

"Yah mean... yah think when Ah absorb someone, Ah get their powers as well?" Rogue started to shake once more. "But - but Ah'll have ta control them! Cyke has ta wear that visor all the tahme, Jean always looses control and destroys everything, and Storm's power-" she shuddered, remembering the fearsome effect of Storm's weather abilities. She looked desperately at Professor X.

"I'm sorry, Rogue."

The two of them remained in silence for a few more minutes. Though it hadn't been vocalized, both knew what this meant. It meant that once Rogue got control (and she had to, or she'd destruct all of Bayville within just one hour of loosing her temper), she would have the capacity to be the most powerful mutant in the world.

"Ah didn't want any of this," Rogue whimpered suddenly, brushing a stray tear away from her cheek. "Ah thought - it was bad enough, knowin' that Ah couldn't touch anyone evah again, but..."

"I'm sorry," the Professor said again, feeling pity for the girl, "This responsibility is one that no girl your age should ever have to carry."

And what a responsibility it was. Rogue had resigned herself to the fact that she couldn't touch, and coped with it by fierce shows of emotion every so often, but now it would seem that even that was dangerous.

"Can Ah - can Ah tell Logan what Ah remember?" She asked hesitantly. Professor Xavier frowned.

"I do not believe now is the most prudent time for Wolverine to figure out his past," he said gently and regretfully. "He may - act rashly."

Rogue nodded, too overwhelmed to argue.

"Well, Ah suppose Ah'd better be off... Ah'm supposed ta tutor Jamie tahday." She lied, knowing the professor knew (especially considering it was a school morning), and walked away, head spinning.

* * *

The good thing was Kitty had the sense not to tell anybody about the events of the previous night.

The bad thing was she was really obvious in her fear of Rogue. She kept shooting the older girl furtive glances, staring at her fists, where, hours before, had sprouted claws made of bone. Of course, Jean noticed.

"Kitty, what happened?" Whispered Jean discreetly. "You're looking at Rogue like she just killed your puppy, or something!"

Kitty cringed at that imagery, but Scott, who had overheard, took it as something else. "What did she do?"

"Nothing!" Kitty replied quickly. _Too quickly_ , thought Scott suspiciously.

"It's okay, you can tell us," Jean said reassuringly. Kitty was becoming more agitated by the moment. No, Rogue hadn't done anything to her, but it _was_ terrifying to see her with claws like Wolverine when she, Kitty, knew that Rogue hadn't made physical contact with anyone in over three months.

"Look, I swear, nothing happened between us. She's just - she hasn't completely recovered from being captured," Kitty lied. Scott and Jean exchanged a disbelieving glance but left it alone.

"I really want to trust her," Jean whispered to Scott in the AP English class they shared. Scott was seated right behind Rogue, and Jean was diagonally behind her. Scott sighed.

"So do I," he muttered, "But lately she seems to have closed off."

"Ever since Remy joined, she's been tense." Jean commented.

Scott sat straight up. "Not tense - afraid." He looked worriedly at Jean.

"That means one of two things must be true. Either Remy did something horrible to Rogue to make her fear him -"

"-Or she's afraid he'll reveal something about her she doesn't want anyone to know."

Jean's breath caught in her throat. "Considering how unhappy he was when he saw Rogue, I'd assume he knows her secret."

"It must be really bad if Rogue won't even let him say her name, like she's wanted, or something." Scott thought out loud, still making sure Rogue couldn't hear their conversation.

Jean and Scott exchanged horrified glances. What if she was a criminal? Of course, Storm had been a thief, and Gambit was _still_ a thief, but this somehow seemed much darker. Rogue knew that pickpocketing, while disapproved of at Xavier's, was not a crime punishable by expulsion.

It had to be something worse.

* * *

"Roguey!" Came an all too familiar voice as Rogue slammed her locker door shut. She sighed. Remy.

Since her kidnapping and subsequent rescue over two months before, Remy had been extremely sweet to her, doing things like escorting her to classes, keeping her updated about the Guild and Belladonna, and buying her the Shingeki no Kyojin DVD set she had been eyeing since the previous summer. He was treating her like he used to, back when they were the best of friends.

And frankly, his friendship hurt more than anything else.

She felt so guilty over what happened, over what she did. She didn't deserve Remy's kindness or his friendship. She didn't deserve _anyone's_ kindness or friendship. Not after the crimes she committed, not after she sentenced somebody else's soul to eternal misery.

"Swamp Rat," she teased, putting on a happy mask for him. He grinned that cheeky grin of his as he slung his backpack over one shoulder.

"Ready fo' y'r Calculus test?" He joked. Rogue groaned. She absolutely despised math, but was extremely talented at it. So talented, in fact, that she had skipped two grades in that particular subject and was taking it as a sophomore.

"Shut up, Cajun."

Remy smirked, but turned serious again. "So, Christmas is comin' up, non?"

Rogue rolled her eyes. "Don't get ahead of yahrself, Swamp Rat, we still have Thanksgiving next week."

Remy chuckled. "So we do. But y' remember dat de Guild cares so little 'bout Thanksgivin' dat, if Tante Mattie didn't make us celebrate it, we wouldn't even know when it was."

Rogue smiled. "Ah remember. And Christmas was always more fun anyway. Even though Ah was never really religious."

Remy rolled his eyes. "De fun part ain't goin' to church around dat time, chèrie! It's always openin' de presents!"

"Speaking of which, what do yah want this Christmas?" Asked Rogue seriously. Remy looked aghast.

"Remy can't tell you! Figure it out!" And with that, he fake huffily stalked off, nose in the air comically. Rogue grinned despite herself.

No matter how much she dreaded it beforehand, or how horrible she felt about it afterwards, she could always count on Remy to cheer her up in the present.

* * *

 **Hey i know this is pretty filler and SUPER SUPER SHORT and that i haven't updated in forever, so sorry.**

 **i was diagnosed with depression last month, and it took me a while to figure out that writing actually made me feel better. so hopefully i'll be updating more often but you never know.**

 **hope you all enjoy! love you guys!**

 **\- At Least I Didn't Fake It**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hey guys i'm so sorry! i know it's been forever! um i'm pretty bad at these A/N things so sorry... but thank you to everyone who sent me messages and stuff in support! i really appreciate it!**

 **TRIGGER WARNING in this chapter - mugging/hate crime, physical abuse. it's pretty graphic, and its very very violent. sorry guys. its really dark**

* * *

Rogue was sitting on a bench at school, trying to concentrate on _Taming of the Shrew._ A giggle floated over, followed by a hushed whisper.

"Stay away from her. She's one of _them._ " One girl said to another, who immediately sobered up and shrank away from Rogue. As they passed her, the brunette said to the blonde, "But _God,_ did you see her makeup? Skunk."

Rogue knew better than to be hurt by that. She rolled her eyes and gave them a glare. They booked it. Sighing, she returned to the play. Call her a nerd, but she was actually reading it for fun. There was something about Shakespeare, some power and some safe haven he provided her, that allowed her to escape the modern world and simply be part of Elizabethan England. Even though it would suck even more to live in that time, she supposed.

 _"Good morrow, Kate, for that's your name, I hear."_

 _"They call me Katherine...That do talk of me."_

The hairs on the back of her neck stood on end. Footsteps were approaching her. She spun around unexpectedly and caught him by surprise.

He was a tall boy, with chestnut colored hair and strong arms. She had seen him before, he was the captain of some sport at Bayville High. _Oh, what was his name? Brett... Brett something. Koble, maybe_. He seemed to have been trying to sneak up on her. His friends crowded behind him, all tall and imposing.

"Don't touch meh," Rogue spat out. She started to feel a burning behind her eyes as her vision started to go red and immediately closed them. Lately, she'd been having trouble controlling other peoples' powers.

He laughed. "Why, what are you going to do about it? Last I checked, if you use your mutie powers against us, you all get kicked out. So we can do anything we want, can't we, boys?"

They burst into peals of raucous laughter. Rogue rolled her eyes, inwardly panicking. She couldn't very well tell them that she couldn't control her powers! She'd be expelled immediately! Her best option was to act like school didn't matter. "Well, Ah think takin' yah down is worth gettin' expelled." There, she thought viciously, that should shut them up.

But to her surprise, they exchanged knowing glances. "Yeah, we'll see about that!"

Thoroughly shaken, she shrugged as she hopped off the bench, swiftly walking to her next class. "Whatevah."

In English, she could feel people staring at her. She heard whispers behind her. She started to feel angry, and she could feel control slipping away from her. She raised her hand politely and asked to use the restroom, a privilege immediately granted to her due to her status as "mutie." As she got out of her chair, a hand to her head to relieve the pressure (it was Jean's powers acting up this time), she could hear Scott's thoughts clearly.

 _Jean, can you hear me? What the hell is she up to?_

 _I don't know, Scott._

Rogue glared at the both of them, sending a mental pulse Jean's way. They weren't supposed to be using their powers, and Miss Goody Two-Shoes had no business being a hypocrite and using telepathy! Her face burned with shame as she saw the pain on Jean's face. Rogue wasn't supposed to use powers either.

 _Sorry,_ she thought Jean's way.

 _Hmph!_ She faintly heard before, _Forgiven this time. Don't do it again._

The pounding in her head increased and Rogue stumbled out of the classroom, the pain intensifying, creating a ringing in her ears.

* * *

"Hey! Roguey!"

Rogue groaned, bringing her hand to her head to massage it. It was more painful now. "Lemme be, Remy!"

"Oh, c'mon Roguey!"

"Ah mean it, Rem." God, her entire head was throbbing!

"Chérie, Remy wants t' tell y'—"

"Rem, Ah swear tah Gawd, if yah don' get lost this instant, Ah will punch yah," She spat. Okay, she knew she was being argumentative and rude, but massaging her temple was practically the universal sign for 'migrane.'

Gambit stopped short, offended. _She_ ruined _his_ life, and she had the nerve to tell him to get lost?! He started muttering under his breath.

" _Garce."_ [bitch]

Rogue stopped short. She was quiet for a good second. When she spoke, Gambit noticed with satisfaction that her voice was shaking. " _What_ did you just say?"

"Y' heard m' say 't."

Another moment of silence. With a start, Remy realized that it was pure silence. He looked around, noticing that everyone in the hallway stopped to stare at them. In the distance, he could see Jean and Scott approaching the small crowd surrounding them.

Rogue whirled around, her green eyes blazing, and marched towards him. "Say it again," she hissed in a deadly whisper. "I _dare_ you." Remy was furious. He took a step closer, watching her flinch away.

"As y' wish, garce!" They both heard Jean gasp but steadily ignored her.

Rogue's eyes smarted with tears. She blinked them back and responded to his verbal slap in the face with a kick in the gut.

"Fahne, Remy LeBeau. You are nothin' but a thievin,' scummy, putrid, horrid excuse fo' a man!" She shouted, turning her head away to surreptitiously wipe off her fallen tears.

Remy was apoplectic with rage. "I'll do y' one better!" He growled scathingly, forgetting in his anger to use the third person.

"You, _Rogue_ , are de worst person I've had de displeasure o' meetin'! Y'r nothin' but a lyin,' life-suckin,' _nameless_ freak!" He stepped into her personal space. "No wonder y'r family left y'." He only saw red. The expression of shock and pain on her face did not register in his mind. No, he could only focus on the years she left behind, of the years since she killed someone and didn't blink doing it. "Did y' t'ink we didn' know why y' left? Did y' t'ink us stupid?" He murmured so only she could hear. He lost all control over his emotions and narrowed his eyes at her. "Coward," he spat, then walked away.

He didn't see the devastated expression on her face. He didn't see the look of utter despondence and heartbreak in her eyes, didn't see her lips trembling with the effort to hold her tears in, didn't see Scott and Jean coming up behind her and marching her to an empty classroom, didn't see her collapse in their arms. He didn't see her fall apart.

He didn't see her die a little more in that moment.

Perhaps if he had, he would have felt guilty. Perhaps he would have felt like apologizing, or giving her a hug, or saying it was okay.

But he didn't see it.

He knew better than anyone that accidents happened. Sometimes they weren't a big deal and sometimes they were horrible. Had what happened to their friend been an accident, Remy would have been the first to comfort Rogue. But he knew her motive. He knew she could have let go if she wanted. He knew she set up a trap.

She _did_ hurt her best friend for personal gain. Remy should know. He saw it happen in front of his eyes.

* * *

Rogue sobbed unrestrainedly into Scott's shirt as Jean patted her back and handed her tissues. The older girl could hardly believe it!

When class ended, she and Scott had started to walk to the cafeteria. In front of her locker, Jean felt an awful pain in her head — somebody's sorrow. It didn't take long to figure out Rogue was projecting, so upon determining her location, she and Scott walked as fast as they could to find her. Untrustworthy or not, she was still part of their team and they still cared about her, even if they were angry. They had walked up to the scene in the middle of the fight, just in time to hear Gambit call Rogue a bitch.

Jean felt the heartbreak Rogue felt as well as the fury of Remy and without having to read their thoughts (they were both projecting rather loudly) knew in an instant that she'd have to support the younger girl when this fallout was over.

She had never seen Remy so spiteful before! Logically, she knew he was pretty calm and controlled most of the time, so she had to conclude that it was something big for him to explode like he did. He must have had a good reason...

 _No! Bad Jean!_ She berated herself. She was comforting Rogue! Absentmindedly, she handed the girl another tissue.

Scott was holding on tightly to Rogue and letting her cry. He hated playing favorites, and he knew that all he did to cover his affection for Rogue, who had become like an annoying and infuriating but lovable younger sibling, would be gone the minute somebody found him rocking her back and forth while she ruined her shirt. Scott found that he honestly didn't care too much about his clothes. He missed being able to do this for Alex, not that the happy little boy he remembered ever needed any comforting. Anger was starting to rise up in him. Who the hell did Gambit think he was? Making Rogue cry like that.

 _You're angry with her,_ a part of him piped up, _she isn't trustworthy._

Scott tried to ignore that little voice but it wouldn't let up. _She's playing you. Not right now, but her endgame is different._

 _Shut up!_

 _You know it's true. She doesn't care._

 _Go away._

He squeezed Rogue tighter as her tears lightened up for a little bit. She looked up at him and Jean, her eyes watery.

"Thank you both." In her quiet deliberation and choice of words, he noticed that she lost her southern accent, like she was putting on an air. "Scott, I am sorry about your shirt."

"Don't worry," he interrupted her, "I have others."

"Jeanie, sorry about earlier."

Jean held up her hand. "Already forgotten. Rogue, why don't you head on back to the mansion? I think you should take the day." She said sympathetically.

Rogue nodded slowly. "Ah think Ah will," she agreed, her accent coming back. Her eyes filled up her tears, but she sniffled and held them back. Rather than remain hurt, she chose to get mad. "Yeah, that damn S-swamp Rat better expect a nasty shock when he gets home! Ah'm gonna — Ah'm gonna—"

Scott gave her a sympathetic smile. "Fill his shampoo with green hair dye?"

Rogue's eyes narrowed. "Worse." She sniffled again, then carefully hugged Jean and Scott.

"Do you want to take my car?" Scott asked. "Or I could drop you off..." Rogue waved him off, giving him a strained but sweet smile.

"Ah think Ah'll walk, but thanks."

Scott nodded. "Call me or Jean when you get home."

"Thank you," Rogue whispered gratefully, wiping her eyes. Her makeup had streaked and the duo were surprised to see tanned skin underneath the pale foundation.

"No problem," Jean replied.

They watched as she walked away, her feet dragging sadly, her head bowed. Scott turned to Jean.

"I don't know how to feel, Jean," he confessed. "I'm so protective of her, she's like my sister, and I love her, but at the same time, something doesn't add up. I'm angry with her for lying to us, but I'm angrier with Gambit for making her cry."

Jean squeezed his arm. "I know," she whispered, her brow furrowed. "Me too."

* * *

Rogue walked home the long way, giving herself time to think. Okay, Remy had a right to be mad, hate her, even... but her eyes stung again at the memory of his caustic words.

She sniffled, turning into an alleyway right off the main road to collect herself. God, she missed Remy already, even though she was still hurt by his words. It was easier last time because she didn't know if he hated her. She could pretend he was still her best friend. But now, there was no question. And if Remy hated her, Bella must want to kill her.

 _This ain't the tahme to feel sorry for yahrself. Pull yahrself togethah, Marie._

"Don't move."

Rogue stiffened as she felt the cold barrel of a gun press against her head. Terror gripped her and she started hyperventilating. Where she came from, guns meant dying.

 _Stupid, stupid, stupid. Yah were trained by assassins, Marie. Yah can't let some yahoo get the drop on yah!_

Okay, so she had options. She had money on her, so if she gave it to him, he'd just leave. Hopefully. She shifted, then stilled immediately when the barrel was pushed harder against her head.

"I _said,_ don't move, you mutie freak."

 _Fuck._

This changed everything. Terror rose up in her again as she felt his breath dangerously close to her neck. She shuddered involuntarily.

She was not invincible, not unless she somehow accessed Colossus' psyche. She could not touch him, because then she'd be seen as attacking him and she'd be expelled.

 _Idiot. Which is worse, expelled or dead?_

But at any rate, she'd have this guy's psyche rolling around in her head, and that was something she did not want. Besides, who's to say that once she started absorbing him his finger didn't twitch and accidentally hit the trigger?

"O-okay. W-what do yah w-want meh t-tah d-do?" She stuttered as she slowly raised her hands.

"Get on the ground."

She complied.

"Face me."

Slowly she turned around. Her heart stopped. It was Brett, captain of boys' soccer. He was still holding the gun against her head.

She whimpered.

He grinned. "Give me your money."

Rogue fumbled with her purse, taking out just her driver's license and showing it to him before tossing her money and credit card at him. She was shaking.

 _Oh God. Oh God. Oh God, oh God, oh God. Ohgodohgodohgodohgod._

"Good," he purred. Rogue looked away, feeling like she could vomit. Without warning, he kicked her in the stomach.

"Ugh!"

"Shut up!" He yelled, striking her cheek with the butt of the gun. He hit her again and again and again, until suddenly, he was targeting her face.

"Noooo," she moaned. "Don' touch meh!" She warned him.

"You can't do anything, mutie!"

"Yah can'... touch meh!" She wailed. "Don' touch meh, don' touch meh!" She was sobbing now.

"Ronny, are you getting this?" Brett asked another boy in the shadows, who was filming the whole thing. They both laughed.

"Poor little mutie. See what happens when I touch you!"

"NOOOO!" Rogue screamed as he punched her in the nose, skin to skin. Her head was exploding, splitting into two hundred little pieces with the force of the pain.

She saw glimpses of his life — his little brother always being better than him, his mom looking at him with disappointment, his dad yelling at him, playing soccer, kissing his girlfriend...

And then it was over.

"What did you do, Mutie!" Screamed Ronny. Disoriented, Rogue only turned to look at him. What had happened? She was all muddled. Why did she hurt? In slow motion, she saw Ronny pick up the fallen gun, next to the unconscious and probably comatose Brett.

 _PROFESSOR, HELP!_ She screamed out mentally, just as the gun fired and a blazing pain hit her shoulder.

* * *

It was Wolverine that found her and brought her back to the mansion, where the Professor accessed her jumbled thoughts with great difficulty and pieced together Rogue's day. Hank removed the bullet and Logan touched her forehead to smooth back her hair and give her his healing power. Wolverine was livid. How dare some teenager hurt one of his kids?! Hank was extremely upset. He was crying while removing the bullet, shedding tears of disbelief and empathy for the girl. Professor X was numb with shock. Rogue was projecting, and he was grieving for the emotional trauma she was going through. She was awake in an hour and was walking around in two, no physical harm lasting. Emotionally, however, she was quiet, withdrawn, terrified, jumpy and suffering anxiety, as was expected. She met with the professor just about two hours before school ended and three and a half until the other Senior X-Men got home.

By that time, of course, word had gotten around that one of the teen mutants had sent the captain of the football team into a coma. The Professor broke the news that she had been expelled.

"Is that all, Professah?" She asked quietly.

Charles Xavier sighed. "I'm afraid not, Rogue. It seems that in light of your... terrible ordeal... the school wants to suspend all the mutants. Indefinitely." Rogue sat up.

"Yah mean Ah," she swallowed, "Ah caused the other X-Men tah get expelled?"

"Do not blame yourself, Rogue."

"Ah did," she whispered sadly. She had done it again, practically killed another person with her... what had Remy called it?... _life suckin'_ powers. And as a consequence, a high school boy was in a coma, another was traumatized for life, and a bunch of innocent mutants would be expelled because of her.

"We will sit down with the Senior X-Men and explain the situation to them. They will understand."

"Ah don' wanna tell 'em why." She said suddenly. "Ah don' want 'em tah know about... about _that._ Ah don' even wanna think about it."

Professor X looked at her in alarm. "Bottling these things up never work, Rogue." When he received no response, he sighed. "Alright, I suppose. But I do believe they will understand."

"Yes, sir." Rogue said. Her eyes filled up with tears. What a day. "May Ah go tah bed now, Sir?"

"Yes Rogue, you may."

"Thank you, Professah."

Rogue curled up in bed and started sobbing. She was so scared. All she needed was somebody to tell her she was safe, that she was alright, to hold her. That was impossible, however, because of her stupid mutation. She hated being alone. Slowly, she focused on her head and held onto the comforting psyches mentally caring for her.

All she needed was time, she decided, accepting psyche-Wolverine's protective hug.

Time. Time heals all wounds.

* * *

 **okay so i know really bad, really dark, really upsetting. i'm so sorry, i'm in a pretty dark mood right now. so again, thank you all for your support, sorry it's taken so long to update. i love you all!**

 **-Jules**


	8. Chapter 8

**Warning: triggers in chapter - holocaust, mentions of abuse, mentions of murder.**

 **either way, hope you enjoy either my story or whatever amazing non-triggering one you picked up instead.**

 **happy reading!**

* * *

"Wagner, Pryde, Drake!" Called Mr. Heaths, a math teacher, in a tone normally reserved for smart-alecks and delinquents (and, recently, mutants), "Report to Principal Kelly's office." He glared at the three of them, who were exchanging glances of confusion. They hadn't used their powers or anything, they hadn't stepped one toe out of line... "Now!" He barked.

Bobby, Kitty, and Kurt swiftly exited their classroom and made their way down the hall.

"Bobby! Kurt!" Called Jubilee, who was standing next to Rahne, "Kitty, did you guys get sent..."

"To, like, the principal's office? Yeah! What do you, like, think is going on?"

"Remy don' know, petite, mais it can't be good," said Gambit, coming up behind the five mutants, Tabitha next to him.

"I didn't do anything!" She huffed as everyone gave her a questioning look.

The ninth grade english teacher, who had sent Jubilee out of his classroom, opened the door and glared venomously at all the mutants. "You are all to report to the principal's office NOW!"

The teens hurriedly backed off and continued to Kelly's office. When they got to the office, they saw Jean, Scott, Ray, Amara, Sam and Roberto waiting for them. Scott openly glared at Gambit for reasons none of the others could discern.

"Any idea vhy all zhe mutants have been asked here?" Kurt asked quietly. Jean shook her head.

"Not a clue."

The secretary opened the door, gave a little squeak of fear, then took a deep breath and bravely continued. "Y-you m-m-may all c-come in."

The mutants filed through the open door, Jean and Scott leading the pack, with Kurt, Kitty, Remy and Evan helping to form a slight, protective huddle around the younger students. Principal Kelly was sitting at his desk, his fingers interlaced with each other, a grave look on his face, and his glasses gleaming triumphantly. Next to him, shaking, was a kid from the soccer team, his shaking hands clutching a video camera as though his life depended on it.

"Do you all know why you are here?" Asked Kelly ominously.

Jean stepped forward. "No, sir, we don't."

Kelly made the pretense of giving a heavy sigh, though the tightening in his cheek and curling of his lip, noticed only by Remy, chilled the cajun to his bones. That was the look of thinly veiled hatred. Not hatred like _"Oh, I hate carrots_ " but hatred like " _I will rip your toenails out one by one just to hear you scream because I hate you so much_."

"I'm sorry it has to come to this," he said, obviously lying. "Were any of you aware that one of your...friends...skipped part of school today?"

All the mutants looked around to see who wasn't present. Only Scott and Jean remained focused. "Yes sir, Rogue was going through — a personal emergency of some sort — and so Jean and I advised her to take the rest of the day off to cool down." Scott said, fully ready to take responsibility for Rogue skipping school that afternoon.

Ronny-from-soccer gave a sort of hysterical cry. "Cool down?! COOL DOWN?!" He shouted, nearly dropping the camera in his hand. Principal Kelly gave the boy a box of tissues and a comforting pat on the shoulder. Jean and Scott exchanged a terrified look. What had Rogue done? What had happened?

"I'm afraid she didn't quite—ehem, cool down." Principal Kelly actually looked upset now, furious and grieving. "In fact, she attacked another student in a fit of anger."

"What?" Gasped all the students.

"That's not true!" Kitty piped up angrily. "Rogue would, like, never!"

But Remy's face turned ashen. She had been furious with him all those years ago, and in a fit of rage she attacked her best friend. She had been furious with him a couple of hours ago as well... it certainly was possible...

 _Mais non! De fille ain't stupid! She wouldn' get caught or expelled fo' it, she's too good fo' dat! I taught her better dan dat!_ Remy told himself. _Den again, I did catch 'er last time..._

Kelly ignored Kitty's outburst. "Is it correct that before Miss — ahem, Rogue, left the school property, she was part of an altercation?"

"It wasn't physical, sir, if that's what you're asking," Jean said. She was trying to probe Kelly's mind to see if this was a lie or not. But since she couldn't make herself obvious, she couldn't close her eyes and completely focus, and therefore it took longer than it normally would have.

"But she was distressed?"

"Extremely so, and with good reason." Scott said, giving Remy a discreet glare. For his part, Remy shifted awkwardly. He could have waited until they were all back at home to call Rogue out on her behavior, he supposed, though he didn't regret a word... well, maybe one or two of the things he said...

"We actually have a video showing exactly what happened," Principal Kelly continued, and Jean could tell that was true. With a sinking heart, she scanned his mind for anything that was different than what he had told the mutants.

She found nothing.

"It would seem that when walking home from school, she was approached by Ronny, here, and Brett Koble. The video shows them interacting for a few minutes, and then turns to her using her powers against Mr. Koble. Now that's rather uncalled for, isn't it?"

Still no lies.

"Mr. Koble has been rushed to the hospital. They have found no brain activity."

All true.

"So it seems that I have no choice but to expel her."

It was so silent you could hear a pin drop. Everyone huddled closer together, trying desperately to protect each other. Jean stood there, gaping. So it would seem that for all the doubts she and Scott had about Rogue's character, and despite how bad they felt for it, they were right to be worried. Shocked as she was, she didn't register the part where Principal Kelly started lying.

"And," Kelly started again, giving all the mutants a sense of foreboding. "And considering how serious this charge is, the school board believes it to be in our best interests to, erm, _temporarily_ suspend all of the children at Xavier's. I'm sorry."

Now that apology was quite obviously not true. Whatever Kelly was, he wasn't sad that he had to get rid of the mutants. No, this was a golden opportunity for him.

"Wait, what?!" Kitty squeaked. "Why?!" Kelly quelled her with a glare.

"The deal was that as long as you could control yourselves, you could attend school with our normal students. It has become painfully clear that this, unfortunately is not a possibility."

"But why should we all be punished because of one student?" Asked Tabitha. When the other X-men glared at her for throwing Rogue under the bus (not that they were feeling too kindly towards her at the moment, but they'd reserve judgement until Jean's verdict), she shrugged. "What? You all were thinking it too!"

"The rules said that a single slip up, not a single slip up _per student_ ," Jean realized, her heart sinking.

Scott clenched his jaw. "How long do we have?" He practically snarled at Kelly. The principal allowed himself a smirk, making all the mutants' blood boil (glancing at Amara, Bobby realized, some literally).

"You have the end of the school day to clean out your lockers, return your school supplies, and — ahem, say your goodbyes. Starting 4:15 this afternoon, no mutants will be permitted on school grounds."

Dead silence rang around the room. What could they say?

"Will de Kobles be pressin' charges?" Asked Remy finally. Every head snapped to him. Of all of them, he knew Rogue the best and for the longest time, and he seemed furious and upset, but not quite surprised.

Principal Kelly's lips tightened. "Nobody is quite sure yet. I do believe it will depend on Mr. Koble's recovery. Obviously this is a horrifying ordeal for the family, and you will excuse them if the first reaction is concern for their son over legal action."

"Sorry," Jean apologized for Gambit.

"You are now dismissed." Kelly said. As the kids dejectedly filed out, he allowed a smirk to grow on his face and said one word that tasted oh, so sweet to him. "Forever."

* * *

"Ah just wanna forget it, yah know?" Rogue asked. She was lying on her bed, facing the ceiling. There were many people in her room, but only one was conversing with her at the moment.

"I know, child."

"His memories... he wanted tah provoke me, he wanted tah make meh use mah powers, he wanted tah get meh kicked out. He just didn't know how poisonous Ah am." She sniffled. "He didn't wanna die, he just wanted tah kick meh outta school. Gawd, all Ah can feel is his fear or mahne. His terror when he realized Ah would kill him, and mah petrification when Ah was held at gunpoint."

"I'm sorry, child."

"But Ah can't forget. Every tahme Ah close mah eyes..."

"The images come back, more vivid than before." Her companion finished.

"Exactly!" She turned to face him. "Ah can't imagine what yah went through in that God-awful place."

He let out a deep sigh. "I watched my mother die before my eyes. My sister fell before her, weeping, and they killed her too. My father starved to death, and I was alone. I was treated like..."

"Lahke a chewed-up piece of someone else's gum on the bottom of a shoe." Rogue gave a bitter half grin. "Lahke yah were less than even an ant. Ah get the feelin'."

They stayed silent for a few moments.

"So, why'd yah decide tah treat humans the way they treated yah, knowin' how horrifyin' it is?" Rogue asked quietly, propping herself up on her elbows.

He let out a deep sigh. "I don't know, child. A bitterness, a resentment, maybe?" He shook his head. "I suppose it is like this; the cycle of abuse rarely, but sometimes follows as such: a child is hurt and destroyed until they are but a shell of themselves, mostly for doing something wrong or being different. When they are finally rescued, _if_ they are rescued, it is too late to undo the misery and the self-loathing.

"So when the hurt child grows up and has her or his own children, they often do not know right from wrong behind closed doors. They regain the fear of a family, even if the family does no wrong. Logic is often useless in matters of immense importance. The victim becomes the aggressor out of fear: hurt them before they hurt me. It is wrong, yes, very wrong — but it is also deeply tragic. I was so hurt as a child. But it wasn't based in family, so my family did not suffer my fate.

"Instead, it was humans that I feared. Human beings with no power except the most devastating one of hatred and resentment did and honestly still do terrify me. So out of my fear of them, and out of my hurt, I have become the aggressor to hurt them before they hurt me." Erik sighed and turned to her. "Child, these are the truths I do not admit even to myself. You are the only person in the universe to ever know, to ever understand. I therefore have one request: please try to save me. The me still roaming about. You could possibly be the only one to make Magneto see reason. Not even Charles..."

Rogue was quiet for a moment. "Ah promise," she whispered.

* * *

"ROGUE!" Came a bellow as the front door slammed shut. Rogue's eyes flew open and immediately Kitty's lamp, her lamp, Kitty's jewelry, Kitty's hair dryer, her flat iron, and Kitty's picture frames settled down gently.

"What the...?"

Rogue pulled her door open and wearily walked downstairs. She had washed all the makeup off her face and changed into sweatpants and one of Henri's old sweaters that he had given her all those years ago... that night. Henri... now that was somebody she missed dearly. Henri, with his practicality and his rationality balanced with his kindness and his caring. Henri was truly like an older brother to her.

She got down and stopped still when she saw everyone facing her. All the high schoolers, which was everyone except obviously the Professor, Hank, Logan, Storm, and Jamie, were facing her angrily.

"Anything you want to explain to us?" Jean asked quietly. Rogue knew the older girl was trying to hold it back, but the southerner could feel the waves of anger coming from Miss Perfect and everyone else.

"Ah..." She started, before trailing off. Flashes hit her mind. _Gun...mutie freak...I can touch you...pain..._ _what have you done? What have you done? What have you done? Whathaveyoudone, whathaveyoudone, whathaveyoudone?_

"We're waiting, Rogue." Scott hissed angrily, a far cry from just over six hours before, when he was letting her sob unrestrainedly into his shoulder.

"Ah... Ah just..." She closed her mouth again. What could she say? _Yeah, Ah was mugged bah an eighteen year old as his friend filmed it, an' then he touched meh an' Ah basically killed him an' ruined all o' y'all's futures? Sorry Ah lost y'all your chances intah college?_

"Ah... Ah couldn't help it." She finished. Jean raised a perfectly threaded eyebrow.

"Listen, Rogue, I gave you the benefit of the doubt. I read the principal's mind as he told us what happened. He was telling the truth, or at least he definitely thought he did. We just want to hear it from your point of view."

"Yeah, see if there's a good reason behind you getting all of us expelled and never getting a high school education ever again, forget college," Bobby said coldly under his breath. Rogue heard him though.

"What... What did Kelly say?" She asked quietly.

"That you were, like, angry... that you were distressed and you, like, touched him and now he's in a coma with, like, no signs of cognitive activity." Kitty desperately wanted Rogue to refute the claims, but she didn't. In fact, she just stared off into space. Her unusually makeup free eyes were tired and weary, and Kitty felt a stab of fear wondering what exactly that meant.

"Was it an accident?" Asked Scott quietly, his face sympathetic. He, of all people, could understand accidents when it came to control. There was the one time when he blew up a third of the bleachers. She slowly turned her gaze to him.

"Was what happened an accident?" She asked with a bitter smile playing on her lips. "Was this whole ordeal an accident? _No._ It was planned."

She, of course, meant what happened to _her_ and what happened to _them,_ meaning her mugging and their expulsion, but her words were immediately taken as something they were not. Brett Koble and Ronny Russo had attacked her on purpose to get all of the X-men expelled, but her words were interpreted to mean that _she_ attacked Koble on purpose.

In hindsight, it was a very poorly phased response, but the reader will not blame Rogue for her less-than-ideal response; she was, after all, working through intense trauma and was rather distracted.

The tension in the air was palpable as everyone was stunned into silence.

"Ah...Ah mean..." Rogue fumbled, realizing her mistake.

"Non," whispered Gambit, his eyes glittering angrily. "Non, don' y' dare. How could y'?" He hissed. She looked into his eyes, tears filling them up as her chin trembled.

"Remy..."

"Don' call m' dat. Don' y' dare call m' dat ever again. I ain' gonna stand fo' it no more." He snarled, his red on black eyes burning with anger. "Y' killed _her_ on purpose, didn' y'?"

At this, everyone gasped in shock and backed away from Rogue, who had tears streaming freely down her face.

"Ah...Ah don't remember..."

"Y' don' remember. Y' don' REMEMBER?!" Remy shouted quite suddenly, losing all control, balling up his fists, completely and utterly livid. He stood in a fighting stance, feet shoulder width apart and angled slightly away from her. He took out a card and charged it, making her flinch. "Y' don' remember if y' killed someone on purpose, do y'?" His lip curled up with disgust. He was starting to understand the reservations Rogue's parents had concerning her.

"Non, R— non. Tu ne comprends pas!" Rogue wailed. [You don't understand]

"Je pense que je comprend tous ce dont j'ai besoin." Retorted Remy, incensed. [I think I understand everything I need to]

"No! Please. Ah — Ah didn't mean—"

"I think it is quite clear vhat you meant," hissed out Kurt, blue tail waving furiously. As Rogue looked at the group of students before her, she saw the same few looks reflected in all of their eyes: anger, fear, and repulsion.

"What is goin' on here, bubs?" Asked a growling Wolverine, who had come in as soon as he "smelled trouble." He saw the stand off between Rogue (and her tears) and the rest of the kids and correctly assumed they didn't know exactly what had happened. "Alright, I want all of you to get ready for a Danger Room session in twenty minutes," he grunted, making it up to save Stripes, "And if you aren't there on time, well, you'll be doing one of my training exercises."

"But!"

"Mr. Logan!"

"It's Rogue!"

"Killed!"

"On purpose!"

All Logan heard was bits and pieces of phrases because of everyone talking over each other. He turned to them all.

"So what?" He asked, taking a stab in the dark because he truly had no idea what they were talking about. When he saw their gaping faces, he realized it was the wrong thing to say. He sighed. "Listen, Chuck trusts her, and so do I."

"You should all be ashamed of how you are treating your friend and your teammate," said Storm, coming in behind him in a whirlwind of fabric. Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Rogue dash past her, wiping at her eyes. The weather witch stared at the children. "The Goddess knows how much that poor child needs support right now."

And to her shock and utter disappointment, the children did not look shameful or embarrassed. They looked furious and resentful. "I don't think so," Tabitha sneered. Amara and Bobby nodded.

"Great, bubs. You can stay back in the Danger Room an extra hour doing my training exercise. Anyone else want to say something, give her company?" He growled. The kids exchanged mutinous looks but said nothing. "Great. Now go!"

* * *

Rogue snuck out of her room in the dead of the night, slipping past Kitty's bed. The younger girl, ever the optimist, had tried to get Rogue to explain what had happened, to tell her side of things, but Rogue had had another headache and could barely move. So Kitty gave up and probably started to believe that her roommate was a cold-blooded murderer.

She sighed as she made her way to the kitchen, hoping to get a midnight snack or a drink. As she opened the fridge, she heard a noise behind her. She stiffened. "Who's there?" She asked coldly. A little figure shuffled out of the shadows.

"Rogue, why is everyone so angry with you?" Jamie asked. Rogue sighed, grabbing the orange juice and two cups. She sat down at the table, gesturing for Jamie to do the same.

"It's 'cause Ah got 'em all kicked out of school today," she confessed quietly. Jamie cocked his head to the side.

"How?"

"Ah used mah powers against someone."

Jamie was silent for a second, and the two of them sipped on their orange juice.

"Did you mean to?" He asked finally. Rogue's eyes filled up with tears.

"Ah — no, Ah didn't mean tah. But he — he wanted me tah use mah powers against him. It wasn't an accident, he meant for it tah happen. But Ah didn't hurt him on purpose," oh, the wonderful feeling of expressing yourself freely, truly!

Jamie was quiet again. "Do _they_ know that?" He asked, gesturing upstairs to the rooms where the mutants slept.

Rogue looked down.

"Huh. They won't listen?"

"Ah don' see it happenin' anytahme soon," she admitted. She brushed a bit of white hair out of her eyes.

"Listen, Jamie. Ah want you tah remember one thing."

"What is it?"

"We are all mutants with dangerous powers in this mansion. Me especially. But just remember this: we do not have th' most powerful, devastatin' an' dangerous power of all, th' one that other humans seem tah have; we do not have hatred, we do not have blind fear, and we do not have resentment. This is what makes us fundamentally different from Magneto, an' fundamentally different from the Friends of Humanity. Ah am not worth loosin' this integrity. It may be too late for th' others — Ah have given 'em more than enough reason tah loathe every cell of mah being. But you, Jamie, you don' have the resentment, fear or hate towards meh yet. Perhaps yah will, perhaps yah won't, at some point. But never, evah act upon that loathin' an' the terror an' th' resentment. Never, evah let fear, hatred an' resentment control yah." She stared unnervingly at him. "Promise meh."

"I— I promise, Rogue."

She looked wisely off into the distance, remembering a family she never had, remembering the guards she never had seen, remembering the death and the horrors of the Holocaust she had been born after. She remembered the fear she (well, Erik, really) felt, and the resentment and utter hatred the Nazis had for them, for simply practicing a different religion. The fear they must have felt, the anger she remembered, the superiority and supremacy of the Nazi Party over Jews, gay people, gypsies, Jehovah's Witnesses, POWs, citizens of different countries...

 _Thank you, Erik. I understand now. I shall never let my anger, my fear, my resentment or my loathing to rule over my judgement. I shall not be angry the X-men, no matter how much they want to strangle me. I shall not fear the humans, no matter how much they fear me. I shall not resent my teammates, no matter how much they desert me._

 _And I shall never, ever hate people the way that people hate me._

* * *

 **yay another chapter done!**

 **hope you enjoyed! i worked super hard on it.**

 **um okay cool! hope you liked!**

 **review, please! criticism totally appreciated!**

 **\- Jules**


	9. Chapter 9

It was chaotic.

She turned around and around, seeing flashes of colors and scenes and landscapes and actions all around her. She could hear the chatter of children from random schools, the screams of a terrorized community, the mechanical whirring of countless machines, the excited shouts at a concert, and the calming chirps of birds in nature. She could smell her dad's special pancakes, the ones he only made when she or her mom were sad. She could smell the smell of burning flesh from when she accidentally charged her own hand.

Rogue took a deep breath and tried to clear her mind.

"Hello. Can Ah — can Ah cut in a moment?"

The sounds and sights and smells were starting to overwhelm her.

"Excuse meh? Uh, this is mah head."

Still nothing. Rogue clenched her jaw.

"HEY!" She shouted, louder than all the memories playing through her head. The world started spinning faster and faster, until suddenly she was standing alone in a white space.

"Um, okay. Can Ah—" she took a deep breath. _What the hell am Ah doing? Ah feel ridiculous._ "Uh, can Ah have a house, please? And, uh, Erik?"

Psyche-Magneto materialized in front of her. "Child, it is your mind, not ours. You only have to order, none of this wishy-washy asking business. None of us are real — well, one is, as you know, but all of us except her are essentially fragments."

Rogue nodded. Oh, how she preferred psyche-Erik to Magneto. She had managed to tease out the humanity in the psyche of Erik, and now his experience and... unique... perspective were of immense use to her.

"Rahght. Okay." She grumbled for a second. "Ah need a telepath. Uh... Jean?" She called out tentatively. The elder girl materialized before her, tensing at the sight of Magneto.

"Jean, Ah want tah ask yah tah help meh get psyche-Erik in his own space."

"Of course, Rogue," said psyche-Jean pleasantly. "How would you like to do it?"

Rogue bit her lip. "Well, Ah'd lahke one section for his memories, anothah for his thoughts and personality, and one more for his powers." Psyche-Jean nodded, brow furrowed in thought.

"Okay, what about a suite?"

"Excuse meh?"

"Give him a suite," Jean suggested. Rogue brightened.

"That's a good idea!" She thanked her. "So do Ah just... _imagine_ a mansion or somethin' an' give him a suite in it?"

Psyche-Jean shrugged. "That's what I would do — or at least, what Jean would do. But it is your head, and whatever suits you works."

Rogue nodded, then furrowed her brow in concentration. Suddenly, the world around them changed, slowly forming into a sort of gigantic box around the three of them. The walls were a deep violet, and the ceiling was red. Not to Rogue's personal liking, but seemingly what Magneto preferred. Focusing, she created furniture (including a couple of couches) and a door, creating a sitting area with a television, through which he could either see what was happening in the outside world through her eyes, or his own memories. This was meant for for his thoughts to stay.

She created a door through which she, psyche-Jean, and psyche-Erik went through. This room was a lot like the other, though she turned into a bedroom instead. The shelves were filled from stills from Magneto's memories, including a blurry one of him and his parents and sister from before the Holocaust. Psyche-Erik seemed to really appreciate this one, because his eyes filled up with tears at the sight of it and he seemed at a loss for words. This room's purpose was to accommodate his memories, though the actual psyche and personality had free roaming between this room and the previous one.

The last room, though, was not accessible to psyche-Erik, or any other psyche for that matter.

Rogue took a deep breath and created a vault in the room, with a pin number and fingerprint recognition, particular only to herself. Then, remembering Mystique, she decided to add in a finger prick and blood sampling to be safe. She nodded to herself. This was secure enough.

She walked out of the room and turned to psyche-Erik. She saw ribbons of light green matter leave psyche-Erik and go to the first room, where his active thoughts were to be held. She then manipulated the blue sparkly powder coming off of his body and kept in the second room. Finally, she reached for the yellow light emanating from his form and embraced it fully, before locking it into her vault.

Psyche-Erik smiled reassuringly at her and psyche-Jean as they made their way out of his suite. She looked back on the door as it closed shut. It was labeled on a plaque above the doorframe: _Erik Lehnsherr — Magneto._

The first thing she realized was that she couldn't feel Erik's memories anymore and she couldn't hear his thoughts anymore. The second thing she noticed was that she wasn't in the white space anymore — rather, she and psyche-Jean were standing in a long hallway with many unnamed doors.

Rogue stopped short. Surely she hadn't imagined an entire hallway, had she?

But subconsciously, she had. As she walked backwards to see the name of this section, she saw that it was labeled 'Acolytes.' She turned to psyche-Jean, who was smiling at her

"You have much more control than you thought," she answered Rogue's unasked question. She tilted her head. "Well, shall we continue?"

Rogue chuckled, feeling much lighter at heart. Next, of course, would be psyche-Sabertooth.

This one was considerably more difficult to accomplish, as psyche-Sabertooth wasn't nearly as willing to cooperate as psyche-Magneto had been. Nevertheless, once psyche-Logan had been summoned to engage in a quick battle with him, Rogue and psyche-Jean were able to work quickly and build psyche-Sabertooth his own suite. Once she had finished constructing his vault (which she decided to do first) she took his powers and locked them in, then dispelled psyche-Wolverine. Psyche-Sabertooth was all bark and no bite without his powers, and everyone knew it.

Upon exiting the room, she labeled it _Victor Creed — Sabertooth._ Exhausted as she was, a silly grin overtook her face. One of the most vocal, annoying, and painful personalities in her head was finally put away, and likely for good, considering if she ever needed feral abilities she could borrow them from Logan.

"Only three more to go!" Jean urged. "You still have Colossus, Pietro, and Pyro."

Rogue shook off the exhaustion and summoned psyche-Pyro, who was a very, very, _very_ loud personality.

"Why, hello, sheila! Last I saw ya, we were havin' a blue, yeah?" He clapped his hands excitedly. "We continuin'?"

"No, Pyro, we ain't," Rogue said shortly as she gave him fireproof walls (just for fun, even though he wouldn't have his powers). Ten minutes and a lot of burns later, psyche-Pyro was safely locked away in his own suite, labeled _St John Allerdyce — Pyro._

Psyche-Colossus was easy enough to lock away. As she stored his memories in his bedroom, she realized that poor Piotr was blackmailed into joining the Acolytes. She sighed. She'd try and locate Illyana and their parents. Maybe she'd tell the Professor and he could use Cerebro... but no, unless Illyana was also a mutant it wouldn't work.

Poor Piotr! By all accounts a good man, forced to work against his ethics and morals to preserve the lives of his loved ones. What a price that must be to pay! To give up your self-worth and your pride, and most importantly your humanity, in order to save the people that have given you those very things your whole life long.

As she whispered an apology, to which the gentle Russian smiled and accepted gracefully, and closed the door, she noticed the words materializing on his plaque. _Piotr Rasputin — Colossus._

It was psyche-Pietro, surprisingly enough, that was the hardest for Rogue and psyche-Jean to lock away. The damn kid was just too fast! He kept zipping out of the room Rogue had constructed for him. Two hours of chasing later, Rogue got the bright idea of imagining molasses on the ground to slow Kurt's brother down. Sure enough, it worked so drastically that psyche-Pietro was no longer a blur but now more achieved the speed of Jesse Owens. A well-placed door did the trick and psyche-Pietro was trapped within his suite, where he was promptly stripped of his powers and locked away, his door reading, _Pietro Maximoff — Quicksilver_.

Rogue felt a little bad about keeping them locked up like mistreated zoo animals, but psyche-Jean reminded her that they were all just imprints, not real. And beside, the fact that her head was considerably quieter certainly outweighed any misgivings she had about organizing her mind.

"Well, Rogue, I hope you're proud of yourself!" Psyche-Jean chirped. "I know I'm proud of you!" She cheered.

Rogue smiled, but it was draped in exhaustion. "Thanks, sugar, but Ah—Ah—Ah—" she yawned, "—Ah've gotta go an' sleep now. Ah've got Danger Room at six, an' it's probably around four rahght now."

Psyche-Jean smiled and hugged Rogue tightly. "Goodnight, my friend."

Those words sent a stabbing pain through Rogue's heart. Her eyes stung with tears and she clutched tightly at psyche-Jean. "Goodnahght, Jean."

* * *

With a gasp, Rogue woke up. She sat straight up and lifted her hand to her head, wincing.

"What's, like, wrong with you?" Asked Kitty harshly, though Rogue could tell the younger girl didn't mean for it to come out so uncaringly.

"Migrane," Rogue grunted, falling back into bed.

"Get up, we've got Danger Room in twenty." Kitty reminded her. Rogue nodded wearily.

The good thing was that she could no longer hear the voices of Erik, Pietro, Sabertooth, or Pyro. Colossus either, though he was a quiet fellow in general anyway. The bad thing was that she had a _killer_ headache. She swung her feet off the bed and stood up. Immediately, she face planted onto the floor, the pain and dizziness getting to her.

"Rogue?" Asked Kitty, sounding slightly more concerned than before. Rogue picked herself up and gave her (former?) friend a wan smile.

"Lahke Ah said, _terrible_ migrane."

"Should you even be, like, training today?" Kitty asked tentatively. Rogue sighed.

"Ah'd better talk tah Logan. See what he thinks."

So the two girls got ready, in a silence more awkward than ever before. Kitty, who despite her initial concern, was still furious at Rogue for getting them all kicked out, as well as terrified because Rogue couldn't remember whether or not she meant to kill someone, and left Rogue alone for the last five minutes. Rogue was slower than usual getting ready due to her headache, and ran to the Danger Room after everyone else.

"Late, bubs," growled Wolverine, narrowing his eyes at her. "Don't think that I'm gonna give ya a pass, Stripes. Get your ass in there, obstacle course today."

"Logan, Ah—" Rogue started to explain she had a terrible headache, but Wolverine wasn't having it.

"No lousy excuses, bubs. Get in."

"But—"

"No arguments!" Logan roared, starting to get annoyed. Rogue was sent into the Danger Room without another word, and was met with dirty looks from the other X-men.

"Alright, here are the teams: Scooter as captain, second is Elf. Their team includes Half-Pint, Ice-cube, Mutt, the Sadist, Tiny, and Solar Power." Logan waited for Scott, Kurt, Kitty, Bobby, Rahne, Tabitha, Jamie and Roberto gathered to one side.

"Rest of you are on the other team. Red is captain, second is Gumbo."

Rogue's heart sank as she saw who her team included: Jean, who was furious with her; Remy, who _hated_ her; Evan, who looked like he could impale her with his spikes; Ray, who had a hot temper; Sam, who looked at her like a hurt puppy that she'd kicked; Amara, who was smoking at the very sight of her; and Jubilee, who was giving her the cold cold shoulder despite being the sunshine of the team.

Her head gave a particularly nasty pulse and she stumbled her way over to them, literally falling at Remy's feet. As she looked up to mutter an apology, she could see the expression of utter disgust and revulsion at the sight of her.

"Sorry," she mumbled. He just huffed. She scrambled to her feet and listened to Wolverine's directions. There would be two tracks on the course today, and it would go relay style; once one person completed it, the next on their team would start. Both teams were competing for time. It was an exercise on how to support the team even if you were all alone in a fight. Destroying the machines were okay; the obstacle course would regenerate once passed.

"Ready...GO!" Bellowed Wolverine. First up on Scott's team was Bobby, who literally just created an ice track in the air to dodge all the weaponry and stuff. On Rogue's team, they started with Amara, who, contrariwise, melted everything in sight. Rogue sighed. It was easy for all the mutants that could use their powers at will. Her, though? She'd have to get past it the old fashioned way — agility.

Bobby completed it two seconds before Amara, so Jamie got a head start before Jean. The littlest mutant just made hundreds of copies to form human shields around him as he walked through the course. Jean gained those two seconds, plus an additional three, by using a telekinetic shield to ward off all the obstacles.

Jamie passed off to Kurt who literally just teleported from barely inside the start to barely inside the finish, putting Scott's team in the lead by a whopping thirteen seconds. Jubilee was going after Jean, and her fireworks weren't quite powerful enough to completely destroy the machines; rather, they just damaged them enough for her to scrape through.

By the time Jubilee finished, Tabby was already halfway through, having loved the excuse to blow things up. Unfortunately for her, Remy was next, and he was better at making things go boom. His speed and agility gave him an edge as well, so he started at a thirteen second lag and brought it down to two seconds.

Rahne, as a wolf, had a more difficult time than her teammates. She had to turn into a wolf and dash through, literally dodging bullets. Even though her inability to ward off attacks was a disadvantage, her speed as a wolf certainly gave her an edge against Evan, who had to go slower in order to block every obstacle with his spikes. She brought the lead up to six seconds.

Kitty and Ray faced off next. Berzerker had to spend his time actually dismantling things, while Kitty just ran, letting anything that hit her phase through. This brought her team's lead up to twenty-four seconds.

Roberto had been put at the end for a reason; he was trying to get as much sun as possible through the Danger Room's fake forest environment. It was only somewhat successful; he was five seconds from finishing the course when a rush flew past him and Sam Guthrie finished the course at the exact same time as him.

And now it was up to Scott and Rogue. Rogue let her instincts guide her, dodging the flaming sticks and jumping up and over the brick wall. She was running, running, running...

Her head started hurting harder than before. But out of the corner of her eye, she saw Scott, who had taken some time burning a hole through the wall with his laser powers, gaining on her. She was panting.

Oh, what a blinding pain! She stopped short, her hands to her head, trying to massage away the agony. But it was to no avail. Her vision went white for a second, before it cleared and she stumbled again. Since she hadn't taken down the brick wall, her team could not see what was happening. Only Scott and Wolverine could. She dropped to the ground, screaming in pain as a ringing wailed in her ears and a sledgehammer broke through her skull.

Scott completed the course and looked back to see Rogue lying on the ground, in the fetal position, hands clutching at her hair and face contorted in pain and misery. He felt a pang in his chest. God, he absolutely _hated_ her right now, but no matter how much you dislike family, they're still family and it's always hard to see them suffer. Especially if it's your little sister in every sense but blood.

"Rogue! Rogue, are you okay?"

But Rogue's only response was a miserable groan.

Wolverine stopped the course completely and shut down the Danger Room before running all the way down. Everyone gasped as the simulation ended and they could see Scott crouched over Rogue's shaking body, looking distressed. Wolverine barged in and grabbed Rogue, giving her a light touch to heal whatever internal injury was causing her pain. It seemed to help, somewhat, as Rogue stopped screaming and just whimpered instead.

Logan was pissed off. Why hadn't the damn brat told him she was having trouble? How hard was that to say? _Hey, Logan, Ah don' think Ah can do th' Danger Room today. Don' feel well._ He wouldn't take that excuse from anyone except her, because he knew that she would never say anything to attract attention to herself unless it was absolutely necessary.

 _The hell is wrong with you, Stripes?_

* * *

 _Mutie freak!_

What?

 _Murderer! You killed me, bitch!_

Who are you?

 _I'm going to make you miserable, don't you worry._

Are you... are you in my head?

 _This world is so impure with you mutant filth in it._

That's right. You're the new psyche. It always takes a bit for the personalities to settle in.

 _Freak. You've done this before? Killed?_

Get outta my head!

 _Oh, no no no. I'm going to drive you mad._

You're sadistic.

 _And you're worthless._

And Rogue's head ached horribly as Brett Koble screamed as loud as he could at the highest pitch he could. She winced and closed her eyes, bringing her hand to her head. She now knew how to silence the voices, but she didn't have the energy right now. She hadn't gone to the Professor with this problem because he was focusing more on control over her skin than quieting the voices in her head. That, he said, could be fixed with a few well-placed blocks. But especially after the ordeal she went through, the Professor had decided it was of utmost importance to turn off Rogue's skin.

* * *

"Remy! Remy!" Came a voice as Kitty ran behind him, trying to catch up. Gambit spun to face her, then putting on a grin that didn't quite reach his eyes, he responded.

"Oui, p'tite?"

Kitty stopped short, her blue eyes meeting his as she asked a very serious question. "Why?"

"Why what, p'tite?"

"Why would she, like, hurt your friend? Like, on purpose? What reason did she, like, have?" She asked inquisitively. Remy sighed, feeling sadness wash over him.

"Remy dunno, p'tite." He confessed. "Dat girl in de Med Bay, dat ain't m' meilleure amie [best friend (female)]. She ain't de girl I grew up wit'. But if I had t' wager a guess, I'd say dat it's 'cause of what she went t'rough." He shook his head sadly. "Not many people can really recover from dat, y'know?"

Kitty stared at him. "No, I don't, like, know. What are you, like, talking about?"

Remy froze. _She didn't know._

"P'tite, much as I t'ink y' should know, it ain't m' decision or m' right t' tell y'. It's M— it's Rogue's secret."

Kitty nodded. "Y'know, I think she was, like, really lucky to, like, have you as a friend. You'd be a great one."

Remy's face burned with shame. _Yeah, some great friend I was, makin' her cry in de middle of de hallway._ "Merci, p'tite."

As he walked outside, he thought about his friendship with Marie. Oh, the look on her face this morning when he looked at her with loathing he felt on principle and not in real life was enough to make him want to cry. This was _his_ Marie. She had always run to him if she needed a hug or cheering up. He could always bring a smile to her face. And in spite of what she did, the horrible crimes she committed, it still hurt that he was now responsible for taking that smile off her face.

He sighed, leaning against a pillar.

Love was such a strange thing. You feel it for family, if you're lucky. You feel it for friends, no matter what. And you feel it for another individual, if you allow yourself to feel. He loved Rogue. Of course he did! But he wanted to hurt her the way she hurt him, and this was the only way he knew how; make her miserable, forced to be trapped in her own mind, until she finally caved and let them know how they could save _her._

"All's fair, chère," he murmured quietly, trying hard to convince himself, "En amour comme à la guerre, tous les coups sont permis." [all's fair in love and war (roughly)].

But is it still fair if he is the only one loving _and_ the only one fighting?

* * *

 **voila! c'est un chapitre, c'est fini! je ne suis pas tellement content avec ce chapitre, mais c'est que c'est. j'espère que vous avez aimé bien ce chapitre! Si oui, respondez, s'il-vous-plait! Si non, si vous me detestez, dites-moi pourquoi! J'aime bien la criticisme... aussi, j'étudie français et je veux améliorer. c'est tout! Merci beaucoup, et je suis desolée pour le mauvais français...**

 **okay sorry guys, i'm trying out a bilingual thing...maybe? idk it seems to be helping my french so just ignore it if you don't like. anyway, i'm not so sure i like this chapter, or at least the last parts of it. i hope you enjoyed it! if you did, yay! i'd love to hear about it! if you hated it, tell me why! I'm always trying to improve!**

 **love you all!**

 **-Jules**


	10. Chapter 10

**Hey sorry it's been so long! I haven't forgotten, I promise! so anyway, there are some triggers in this chapter, ptsd and the like. if this affects you, please skip past or find a nice, fluffy romy instead. hope you enjoy! love you all and stay safe.**

* * *

 _"Why are you still here, Rogue?" Asked psyche-Jean in shame after a long night of the two of them sorting through the Brotherhood. "We've been judging you for no real reason. Well, except the school thing."_

 _Rogue shrugged. "Ah mean, y'all don't really know about...about..." she trailed off, freezing up as flashes flew through her mind. Psyche-Jean shook her head._

 _"No, we don't. And we misunderstood you when you said it was not an accident." Psyche-Jean looked down. "But we should have tried more."_

 _They were silent for a while. Then Psyche-Jean asked again,_

 _"Why are you still here, Rogue?"_

 _Rogue closed her eyes. "Ah dunno. Sometahmes, Ah'm so angry with y'all. Why don' yah trust me?" She scoffed and smiled bitterly. "An' other tahmes, Ah feel lahke Ah deserve it. Ah've done some bad things, Jean." Her eyes filled up with tears. "Ah just wanna make up for it."_

 _"Oh, Rogue." Psyche-Jean sighed and wrapped her arms tightly around the younger girl. She let Rogue cry into her shoulder, huge, shuddering sobs that screamed out for support and help._

 _"An' — an' other tahmes, Ah know Ah can't leave because y'all are mah family, and Ah love yah." She sniffled. "Ah can't leave Jamie. An' Ah have nowhere tah go, no family that wants me. Not anymore."_

 _Psyche-Jean felt a shiver run through her spine._

 _"Vhy?" Psyche-Kurt came up behind them, surrounded by Psyche-Kitty, Psyche-Scott, and Psyche-Evan. Rogue sighed._

 _"Ah don' know. Ah don' remember. But Ah remember guilt, and Ah remember lookin' down on..." She broke off, lost in a memory. "Ah know it was mah fault." She smiled bitterly. "Ah remember Ah didn't wanna let go. And then Ah killed..."_

"Rogue!"

She opened her eyes slowly. She was in the med lab, lying on a cot. The other originals were around her. Jean and Scott were standing at the foot of her bed, while Evan and Kitty were sitting in chairs beside her. Kurt was hanging from the ceiling above her.

Remy wasn't there.

"Hey. How are you, like, feeling?" Asked Kitty.

Rogue closed her eyes for a minute and focused. Her head was throbbing and she was sore all over, but it wasn't too bad at all.

"Ah'm okay," she said, her voice raspy.

"Kitty says you tried to tell Wolverine you couldn't train today, but he wouldn't listen," Scott said, his face unreadable. Rogue stared at him for a moment, then nodded.

"Has that happened before, recently?" Asked Jean quietly. Rogue snapped her head up to face her. "Did you try to tell someone something, but they wouldn't listen?"

Hardly daring to believe her ears, Rogue nodded.

'"So vhat vas it zat you vanted to tell us?" Kurt asked, tail lashing in interest. Rogue flinched.

"Ah can't talk about it. Ah - it's too hard." She confessed quietly. Evan narrowed his eyes.

"Look, Rogue, we're trying here. You have to understand, all we know that has happened is that you used your powers against someone, we all got kicked out of school, and Gambit seems to think you killed someone. Can you really blame us for being cautious?"

Rogue stared off into the distance. "No."

"This is why we need to know. I understand it's difficult, but you have to try to explain." Scott said.

"We, like, want to trust you, Rogue, but it seems suspicious and we can't just, like, ignore everything if you don't, like, tell us your side," Kitty told her.

Rogue bit her lip, then narrowed her eyes in determination. They did deserve to know why they were kicked out, after all. She could hear, vaguely, Psyche-Jean cheering her along quietly, sending her encouragement.

"Ah was walking home after Remy's and mah fight," she started, breaking the unnatural silence. Her voice was now the only sound in the room. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Hank and Storm behind the glass, unable to hear anything, but sending her support. "And Ah was in the alley and he..."

 _"Shut up!"_

 _'Don't touch meh!"_

 _"Don't move, you mutie freak!"_

 _"Don't touch meh, don't touch meh!"_

"Rogue?"

She gave a start. _Oh_. She hadn't spoken, had she? The other X-men were looking at her, concerned for the first time.

"Ah'm sorry," she said in a whisper, "It's too soon. Y'all deserve tah know, but Ah can't talk about it. Not rahght now."

Jean pursed her lips, looking disappointed.

"Well, what are we supposed to think now, Rogue?" She asked in a clipped tone. Rogue's eyes filled up with tears, but she refused to let them fall. "I mean, we have given you so many chances to say something we can believe. You understand, we would believe you unconditionally, despite the evidence that the school has. But you won't even say something! Not anything!" She was getting angry now, and the others were on the same page.

"We don't need you to relive it or anything," Evan picked up where Jean left off. "Just give us a vague idea."

Rogue shook her head quickly, her shoulder paining with the force of a bullet ripping through it. "Ah can't," she choked out. "Ah'm sorry, but y'all are just gonna have tah either trust meh when Ah say it isn't what yeh think, or believe the rumors yeh hear. Ah wanna tell yah, but Ah can't."

She looked down as she heard Kurt hiss and Scott let out an angry sigh. "This is too big o just blindly trust you on, Rogue. A kid is in a coma, and if Gambit is to be believed, he isn't the only one. I'm sorry it's come to this."

And he led the others out. Not one of them looked back.

Rogue started sobbing, and Hank and Storm rushed in. Neither of them had heard anything, so they didn't realize what had happened.

"Do you want us to tell them, child?" Storm asked quietly. Rogue looked up into her blue eyes.

"Please. But not now, Ah think they need a day tah calm down."

Ororo ran an experienced hand soothingly through Rogue's hair. "Whatever you want, child." Ororo forced herself to hide her sadness for the girl in front of her, instead smiling reassuringly at her.

Hank, on the other hand, was looking at Rogue with concern in his eyes. "Where was your mind at, Rogue?" He asked her quietly.

Rogue's lip trembled. "Ah was...Ah was _there_ again. He was yellin' at meh, and then the gun...and, and, and-" she broke off into heavy pants, her eyes wide with fear, glazed over, lost in memories. Vaguely, she heard Hank say something about a panic attack to Storm, but she didn't care about that. She couldn't breathe, and Brett was right there, and she was staring down a gun, and Ronny was filming and, and...

And suddenly Remy was there, grabbing her arms through her long sleeved shirt, staring into her eyes, telling her it was over, it was just a bad dream, like he and Henri used to when they were children. She focused on his red and black eyes, gasping for air, just barely managing to calm herself before she pitched over the edge of the cot and was sick on the floor.

Rogue could barely comprehend what was going on as Ororo bustled about, cleaning up the mess on the floor and Remy slunk away, telling Hank in passing that while he despised Rogue, he knew how to calm her down. Beast glared at Remy angrily for his words, but thanked him anyway for his help.

"Does this happen often?" Beast asked Remy.

"Used t'," the Cajun said shortly. "Stopped doin' dat when we were ten, somet'ing 'bout gettin' better from a disorder." He glanced back at Rogue, staring ahead of her, her eyes looking but not seeing. His expression was unreadable. "Fille's [girl's] got a rough past t' r'member."

And at that statement, Hank knew that no matter what happened between Rogue and Gambit as children, no matter how horribly Gambit treated her, no matter what she did to deserve it (if indeed she did deserve it), when it came down to it, the two would help each other out.

Rogue was shaking. Remy had helped her, like he had when they were young and the Guild saved her, even though he hated her.

Well, as far as she was concerned, he had every reason to hate her.

But that didn't stop him from caring.

For the first time in the day, Rogue smiled.

* * *

"I'm going to diagnose her," Hank said to Ororo as the two of them gazed upon the sleeping girl. "I'm not well versed in psychology, but it's pretty clear to me what's going on with her."

Ororo nodded seriously. "PTSD, you think?" She said quietly.

Hank nodded. "The flashbacks, the depression, anxiety...it's quite likely that she's been awake inside her head, talking to the psyches, which I would classify as insomnia...she shows many of the symptoms." He shifted uncomfortably. "Normally, it would be too early to diagnose it, but seeing that Mr. LeBeau tells me she used to suffer from it as a child...not in as many words, of course, but it is highly likely she has been traumatized as a young girl." Hank shook his head. "To experience that so young, and then grow up, recover from the ordeal so she rarely experiences it anymore, only to go through something like this when she is finally getting better..."

"But it is too early to diagnose it?"

Hank nodded. "Officially, yes. But I find it highly likely, given her history with it."

Ororo felt a lump in her throat. "The poor child," she whispered, "Unable to forget, and unable to find comfort from contact," she shook her head sadly. "The other children are treating her terribly."

"You must remember, Storm," came another voice from the doorway, "That the other children have no idea what happened. All they know is that a young man is in a coma, they have been expelled, and Rogue will not defend herself." Professor X wheeled himself fully into the room.

"They could give her the benefit of the doubt!" Storm burst out, the clouds darkening slightly outside.

Charles Xavier nodded sadly. "They could. But they are hurt, and young. Despite their experiences, they have never seen hatred like Rogue has. They do not yet have the wisdom or the patience to consider all possibilities."

Ororo deflated a little bit. He was right, of course. But that didn't mean they could just treat Rogue badly."

"She told me to tell them what happened," she confessed quietly.

"I'm not sure if that's a good idea," Professor X said. He looked upset and uncomfortable by the thought, and both the Beast and Storm turned to look at him.

"What do you mean?" Beast asked furiously in a show of uncharacteristic anger, "Support is a huge part of the recovery process!"

"I know," said the Professor heavily, "But the children might react rashly."

Ororo gasped. "You think they will retaliate? Why? They never have before."

"None of us have ever been victim to a hate crime before."

Hank felt tears come to his eyes. "This is wrong," he whispered, "Keep the children in the dark because there is a chance they will attack humans?" He shook his head frantically. "They would never!" But he remembered the anger in Tabitha's eyes, the tightening in Bobby's jaw, the clenching of Scott's fists. And he realized, he didn't know for an absolute fact that the kids would not seek revenge for their abused friend.

"You believe they would disobey a direct order?" Ororo argued, but the fight was leaving her voice. She knew that they had trained the X-men to fight for what they believed in. For the love of their family, their Rogue, they would absolutely disobey a direct order.

"We need only keep the situation quiet until the Kobles press charges," the Professor reasoned. "If we can show the children we can find justice through the legal system, they will not be tempted to take matters into their own hands."

"When do you expect them to press charges?" Asked Hank heavily. The professor sighed.

"Within the next two weeks."

Ororo felt a tear escape her eye, followed quickly by more. "Are we really doing this? Allowing Rogue to suffer their wrath for the chance they might act on their anger? For _politics_?"

"Yes."

The voice came from the bed, and the three adults realized Rogue had been awake for the better part of the conversation. The teenager took a deep breath.

"Yes. Ah know them, an' Ah know they'll react badly when they fahnd out." Her emerald eyes narrowed in determination. "Ah can handle it for a couple o' weeks. It's more important that nobody else gets hurt." She bit her lip. "Ah agree with the Professor."

And thus began the deception over yet another secret.

* * *

 **aww poor rogue. i know she seems like a bit of a martyr right now and that's a bit annoying but one of the symptoms of ptsd is self blame and guilt, and in order to help with her guilt, rogue is deciding to stop things from escalating.**

 **so the reason i'm writing about ptsd is because i recently found out that when i was a kid and my sister died unexpectedly, i had acute (short term) ptsd. i don't have it anymore, and i was so little i barely remember my sister and i'm completely fine, but the point is nobody wanted to talk about it or acknowledge that my family suffered seriously as far as mental health went (my parents were devastated, obviously) for the simple reason that talking about mental health made them uncomfortable. and i think mental health is definitely a taboo, at least in georgia, where i'm from, so i felt like writing about it.**

 **again, as horrible as it sounds i was like five and barely remember it, so i'm sad but it's really not a big deal for me anymore. life, you know?**

 **that being said, if anyone wants to talk to me about anything going on in their lives, if you ever need support or a metaphorical shoulder to cry on, i'm totally here for you. pm me and we can talk.**

 **okay i know it's been super long since i updated and im so sorry!**

 **i would love constructive criticism.**

 **love to all of you,**

 **-jules**


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